Nightfall at Penzance

I really like painting at dusk or down, the logistic is always an issue. What looks good during the day may not does when it's dark, even if it is you have to adjust the composition to suit the different lighting and the new shapes it creates. When I set up to paint this, I didn't know what it'd look like in the dark, I had to make a decision based on the silhouette, and the overall mass of the darks.

One way to go about it more safely is to scout the location beforehand in the dark, and then go back to it the day after so you can have the precise composition planned.

Nightfall at Penzance - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Dark oil paintings usually have the problem of having a lot of glare. For picture taking, I took it from an angle where there was least glare (not frontal), then in Photoshop I distort the corners to make it look normal. There are better ways than this such as using a circular polarizer. I do have one but it doesn't fit the lens I was using.