How to Paint Northern Lights | Step by Step Tutorial | Oil Pastels Artwork

Hello dear Steemians! Today I'm sharing a tutorial on how to paint the beautiful northern lights using oil pastels mostly. Before I jump into my tutorial, let me explain a little about the northern lights. Northern lights are beautiful dancing lights that can be seen in the northern and southern hemisphere. This wonderful phenomenon happens due to the collision of gas particles such as oxygen and nitrogen. Some of the shades that have been seen are green, yellow, red, violet and blue. I chose to paint the most common shade of the aurora lights which is green.

Tools and Materials

• Buncho oil pastels
• A good quality artblock that is durable
• A 2B pencil to draw
• Some tissue to clean your fingers after smudging
• Luna colour pencils

Step by Step Tutorial

This is my drawing. There is nothing much except a curve so that I can use it as a guide to part the land and the sky. I chose to use a curve and not a straight line because I wanted my artwork to look like a wide angled view. It is best to make little guides like this to avoid wasting time on correcting mistakes later on.

This is my first layer of colours on a small part of my artwork. I coloured it and smudged but it was too dull for my liking.

I added a few more layers over the first smudged layer. I feel that it looks better now :D

I added a few more colours. It is up to you how you would like it to be. However, try not to add too many colours from different family groups and if you do, keep them subtle and not loud. The reason is to keep the focus on the sky where the bright dancing lights will be and not the ground.

I have completed painting the land area here. I did add several colours but I kept them as subtle as I could to an extent.

I continued to paint the sky. I wanted the sky to stand out more than the land. So, I added different colours which are pink, rose, purple, violet, and prussian blue. I blended them by going back and forth over the colours with the closest colour value among the shades I have selected. For instance, the closest colour value to rose is purple. Hence, I painted purple above rose and blended them both by colouring on each other on the part where they meet.

I painted some greens for the lights on the sky. I have not smudged them yet.

This is after smudging the greens with my fingers.

Smudging alone was not sufficient to create the best smokey looking effect for me. So, I added some almond green around the darker greens to make it look smokey. If you don't have that colour, you can just use white for the same effect. I also painted more prussian blue on other white areas along with some royal blue for lighter shading. I recommend using at least two different colours for the sky because it creates an illusion of a wider space.

I was wondering whether to use a black oil pastel or a black colour pencil to paint some trees. In the end, I chose to go with a black colour pencil because it has a finer tip which allows me to add details. I also don't have to worry about making a mess while layering the existing colours with the darkest colour. Then, I added my final touch by tapping my white oil pastel on the sky region to create some shining stars. This is the completed artwork.

This is a cropped version of the same picture. I hope that you enjoyed reading my post and find it helpful. Thank you for checking it out and have a great day/evening ahead ♥

Source of information about northern lights:
Northern Lights Centre

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I'm a chill, happy go lucky person. I am a feminist. I love food, art, books, numbers, psychology and occult science. I am in the process of healing and diving into spirituality. I think life is a gift and we should appreciate the little things of life more. Everything that I post is a little piece of my life. I believe that everyone is carrying their own cross, so don't judge anyone and be kind!

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