How to Paint a Moonlit Rooftop Scene in Oils: Creating a Smooth Evening Sky

This simple moonlit scene required just three oil colours and white. How simple can it be! This meant the artist could practice blending pigments into smooth gradations without concern over complex colour mixes. Deep tones softening into pales, brought forward a tranquil sky for the use of soft, wide brushes. But this simple demo still required colour control, particularly around the rooflines, and the detail for the moon.

Art Materials Needed

For this painting, I used:

An A4-sized thick card primed with white acrylic polymer primer (water-based white gesso will do).

Oil colours: Titanium White, Phthalo Blue, Lemon Yellow and Burnt Umber. Several fine and medium bristle brushes enabled blending. A ruler, soft pencil and old rags came in useful.

What you will Learn from this Demo

How to create contrasts between light and dark.
Blending a dark, deep colour mix into increasing amounts of white to bring smooth effects.
Using a limited palette to judge tones.
To carefully work paint around the geometric area and the moon.
How to see other colours within white (as seen in the moon).

Despite the simplicity of this scene, this exercise provides practice in smooth blending and a tonal balancing act. Care is also needed to keep the rooflines sharp.

Step 1: Drawing the Rooftops and Moon

The painting began with a simple pencil sketch. I used a soft pencil and ruler to outline the rooftops, chimney stacks and trees. The moon was positioned towards the upper right of the composition for balance. I used the top of a jam jar to get a true circle. Keeping the drawing as simple as possible, I could concentrate on tones rather than detail.

Step 2: Blocking In the Greens of the Main Sky

I used two medium bristle brushes here: one for pales, the other for darks. This meant I didn’t have to keep cleaning one brush between mixes and breaking the flow. I began at the horizon line behind the rooftops. I mixed a little phthalo blue with a tad of lemon yellow into a good portion of white. I then applied this sharp, turquoise green around the outline of the rooftops. The lemon yellow would add a citrus feel as I worked upwards.

Step 3: Blending Smooth Transitions for Dusk

With the separate medium bristle reserved for dark mixes, I applied a heavy portion of phthalo blue into a smidgen of white. Phthalo, being an overpowering and dark pigment, can easily look black if used lavishly. I avoided adding too much to the white at first. Notice the shift in tone between the top and bottom of the sky. A balance in tones will be required here.

Step 4: Painting the Rooftop Silhouettes

The aim now is to knit together the two turquoise tones. I added more white to the dark brush as I worked downwards, and more phthalo blue as I worked upwards. I had to ensure the tone in the middle would agree. I avoided using too much paint in the middle area, so I could add a little pigment for tweaking. Don’t worry about the patchy bands that may appear on the sky. These can be blended later.

Step 5: Balancing the Tones of the Sky

This blending process is an excellent way to practice brush control and colour balance. It demonstrates how subtle tonal transitions can create atmosphere with just three colours and titanium. Once I had covered the sky with the turquoise mixes, I used the bristle (either will do, as both will have similar mixes by now) to knit together the colour bands. Periodically, I wiped off paint buildup from the brush to retain control. A nice blend can be achieved without high perfection.

Step 6: Refining Atmosphere and Contrast

And now for the silhouetted buildings.

I mixed phthalo blue and burnt umber into a clean brush to attain a rich near-black. I don’t usually use pure black (such as lamp black or ivory) for it can deaden the colour mixes. Here, the silhouette comes forth as a cool, sharp, and vivid black. I blocked in the rooftops and chimneys. I worked the paint roughly towards the bottom of the art surface. The simple shapes immediately leap into the composition, bringing unity to the painting.

Steps 7: Painting the Full Moon’s Features

The bottom two images show how I painted the moon. I aimed not for detail, but suggestion and a painterly feel. With a medium soft sable, I illustrated the rustic features on the moon’s face. I was careful not to go too heavy with the phthalo blue here, for it can overpower the titanium white to be applied next.

Step 8: Colour Mixes for a Green Sky at Dusk

With a clean sable, I applied pure white onto the highlighted areas of the moon and allowed the bluish features to bleed into my white colour mix. Notice the pales become a little greener to the left of the moon. This suggests a light source hitting the moon’s sphere from the right.

I wanted the moon to appear ethereal, ghostly, rather than stand out too much. The moon’s greenish tinge makes it ‘belong’ to the scene.

Finally, I blended a slight halo effect around the moon’s outline to prevent a cut-out feel. The closing stages of the painting always involve a little refining and soft blending. I had to take care not to overwork the painting to perfection, for this is not the aim of the exercise.

The Finished Painting

See how a limited palette can produce a rich range of tones and hues. The smooth transitions within the sky create a still evening feel, while the dark silhouettes provide structure and contrast.

This demonstration provides an excellent introduction to blending tones and blocking in large areas, while at the same time, restraint in using too much detail, particularly to the moon.

Further Reading