So I’m contemplating some summertime paintings and wondering what you all would do to add some fireflies to a painting? I was thinking about doing the falling snow technique, but just with some cad yellow diluted with some liquid clear. How would you all go about doing this?
Painting Fireflies
Not a bad idea. Like all light sources in the dark, fireflies are a light and color gradient. Flick the cad yellow on as you suggest and let it dry. Then take oil-thinned cad with a bit of sap green or midnight black and make a slight "halo" around every fleck. Finish with a dot of cad mixed with white at the center of each fleck. I would use the script liner for these latter steps.
Ian_Adkins I think I would do that finishing just on the bigger dots that appear with the flick method.
You might also flick on some thinned cad, as it may increase a sense of depth. Light attenuates (or rather is scattered) with distance. Ergo, fireflies further in the background will look less bright to the observer.