These Daily Compositions from May 23 2023 are 3 views that caught my eye all on the same Tuesday evening as I headed home. I painted all three digitally on the computer using Adobe Photoshop with a Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet. I’m not usually quick enough with the camera to capture everything I see that might make a nice photograph. I often sketch these views instead.
See more of my Daily Compositions in these posts here.
I’m reposting this to turn off the comments function, there’s too much spam.
Daily Composition 01, May 23, 2023 – the sunset above
The first pic is the most spectacular and graphic. It’s the evening sky as seen from a motorway. The setting sun was directly in my eyes and the bridge with motorway signs was graphically silhouetted in the glare. The sky was pretty clear and cloudless but there was enough haze in the atmosphere to give an amazing golden tone which faded up into the remains of the blue sky. The lower part of the sky was darker and more red, I’m unsure whether this was haze or pollution catching the red of the sun.
In any case, it was spectacular. There were two narrow clouds which appeared purple against the golden glow. This looks quite weird as clouds are not generally actually purple. But purple is the opposite colour to yellow so I guess this is my eyes compensating for all the gold in the scene.
There was also a very distant vapour trail from an aeroplane which appeared clear and tending toward white. I guess the vapour trail was so much further towards the vanishing daylight than I was that the light reflected off it was more of the usual daylight white. It gave a nice graphic clarity against the intense colours of the rest of the scene.
Prints – this picture is available on on my Fine Art America page for prints or for printing on custom things like mugs, phone covers etc.
Daily Composition 02, May 23, 2023 – vapour trail against toned sky:
As I looked to my right another plane at great height left a white vapour trail clear against the sky. This part of the sky was far enough from the sunset to still be quite blue but was toned with the glow from the sunset below and to the left. I could hardly see the plane and the vapour trail tapered to a sharp little point.
Daily Composition 03, May 23, 2023 – vapour trail shoots clouds like target:
Thin hazy layers of cloud can lie in invisible blankets until the sun catches them in a certain oblique way. This then reveals a pattern that always reminds me of the wave pattern on a sandy beach.
In the picture below a small such patch of cloud hung like a target in the sky. The sky colour here was more of a grey-blue with little interference from the gold of the sunset. The clouds however picked up and reflected enough of the sunset to appear almost brown. The plane and white vapour trail then shot the little patch of cloud in the exact centre like a target.
Secret fourth pic…
I did see something else that stuck in my mind as making a good composition from the day. It was a fleeting glimpse of the motorway approaching a bend and a hill up to an intersection. Between the bend and the hill and the change in elevation the fleeting glimpse seemed for a moment as if it was all made from rubber. I want to draw this next.
