The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

The Northern Lights -- Second Color Study

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The Northern Lights -- Second Color Study
After staring at many more pictures, I spotted the problem with my aurora study -- aurora bands are not continuous; they are broken in places. The rays making up the curtains always come through the atmosphere at a slant, unless you're right under the storm and then it doesn't have the appearance of curtains (it makes an effect call a "corona" display) -- my study had the rays almost vertical. Also the base of the curtain bands don't form a sharp edge, but a soft one.

Taking a fresh piece of black paper, I painted a dashed and broken line to represent the "base" of the curtains, then started making long, diagonal slashing brush strokes over the line, starting just beneath it and trying to vary the place from which the brush stroke started. There needed to be an "edge" to the curtain but it couldn't be exactly even.

After getting the basic shape laid down, the white painted was worked a lot with a damp brush to soften it. Once the albino aurora looked about right, it was over painted with the green and touches of rose along the very uppermost tops of the rays. The final effect was much more what I was after! -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).