Quackcast 727 - Painting Series: Sky and Sea

We haven't done anything about actual art-making for a while so we thought we'd start a series on technical stuff. Starting out we tackle painting sea and sky! These are key general background elements, they're the two biggest simple background features you can get, you don't always need them but it's good to understand these big features for outdoor scenes and how they work. Sky and sea can be super simple features in art, in the most basic version all you need is a horizon line and pretty much nothing else, but they can also be super complicated and advanced if you want to go the other way. Skies can vary massively based on the time of day and what's in them, like clouds or pollution, and it's the same with the ocean. There are also basic physical principals that drive how they look: The sky is blue because it scatters and deflects blue light, it's darker towards the top of the sky (as long as the sun isn't there), because the top of the dome of atmosphere is thinner and less light is reflected, while towards the horizon the sky usually gets lighter because the atmosphere is thicker, the angle is different and so it's more reflective of sunlight. The sea is made up of water which is transparent, filled with stuff, and also somewhat reflective- so it looks various shades of blue in the deeper parts because it's a dark reflection of the sky. In the shallower parts the colour gets lighter because the sea bottom is more visible and helps reflect more light, the sea can also have a lot of green weed or algae in it which also affects the colour, as does the colour of the sea floor. So in the middle of the day the sky will be dark blue at the top and fade to light blue at the horizon while the sea does the opposite, starting with dark blue at the horizon and fading to lighter blue and then even green when it gets close to the viewer. Colours change at dawn and dusk when the angle of the sunlight is very low and being scattered and reflected in different ways: You get reds, yellows, oranges, and pinks usually. The low angle of the light on the water means that much more is reflected and so the colour is very different! Clouds, night, sun, and moonlight change that again! It gets very tricky and interesting and we cover all that in the cast! How are you with sea and sky rendering? Do you go simple or complex? This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Continuity Falls - Down-home, where the grass is blue, the moon is shining and fiery, the hills are billy and the apa is lachin… Banjo, guitar, drums, and standup bass give us a nice little energetic mountain dancing tune! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Grapeshot - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/feb/10/featured-comic-grapeshot/ Featured music: Continuity Falls - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/?search=continuityfalls - by Banes, rated E. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ VIDEO exclusive! Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS