The Sun on 27.04.2024

[SwiMatt]

I had planned to just do a short first solar light today, but then @Richard N started talking about how to sketch the limb darkening and I just had to try right away

First solar sketch, and already hooked. To give more of a spherical appearance to the Sun disk, I used a tortillon with some dark graphite (from blending the terminator of a Moon sketch a week ago), applied the graphite to the paper very lightly, then blended with a clean tortillon and/or fingers. Fingers are better for this, I think. This allowed me to actually put down on paper observed lighter areas on the limb that would otherwise have been impossible to add. BUT! This technique is difficult to control! Too much graphite applied in one spot and it will not show as a uniform blend - this shows very well in many areas of my sketch.

[YogSothoth]

Very good sketch, especially as you’re starting out with solar. I do a lot of solar sketching myself, but I tend to just sketch in the sunspots. Might have a go at this limb darkening though…….if the rain ever stops ☔️

[Richard N]

18 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

I had planned to just do a short first solar light today, but then @Richard N started talking about how to sketch the limb darkening and I just had to try right away

First solar sketch, and already hooked. To give more of a spherical appearance to the Sun disk, I used a tortillon with some dark graphite (from blending the terminator of a Moon sketch a week ago), applied the graphite to the paper very lightly, then blended with a clean tortillon and/or fingers. Fingers are better for this, I think. This allowed me to actually put down on paper observed lighter areas on the limb that would otherwise have been impossible to add. BUT! This technique is difficult to control! Too much graphite applied in one spot and it will not show as a uniform blend - this shows very well in many areas of my sketch.

Nice job. Did you use a mask to keep the shading inside the sun’s disk? The difficulties you describe are what I had been thinking about. 

[SwiMatt]

34 minutes ago, Richard N said:

Nice job. Did you use a mask to keep the shading inside the sun’s disk? The difficulties you describe are what I had been thinking about. 

No mask, the tortillon is enough to be precise along the disk! But also, a mask would help, I'm just lazy.