In with the Trees

Ok, so now the paint is dry lets get on with the trees. These are conifer trees and are adapted to snow conditions so their branches are generally downward sloping to facilitate the snow sliding off them. Some of the branches are pointed upward towards the sun but as they lengethen they droop especially when the snow burdens them. The first trees I'll put in are the distant ones. Because they are further away they are more blue- see as things recede the warm colors -yellow and red-diminish until a faint blue occupies the feature. Here I mix the alizarin red with the ultra blue and a spot of white and use the pastry brush.

The closer trees have more mass and color. I use a yellow ochre with the ultra blue on top of a deeper color from burnt sienna and ultra blue. The scraggly bit of foliage to the right is in preparation for the trunk. Now I ask you ....can you see the distance operating on color, tone and detail! Of course you can. That folks is the simple concept of aerial perspective at work. Easy aint it!

Off to a flying start!

So after a fair bit of fooling around with my Vespa's electrical engineering defects I eventually found my way free to paint. Taking one look at my palette I felt maybe I should go back to the impossible Vespa. That palette really does need a clean up but then again its always been like that no matter what!

Anyhow buried in there were my 3

 trusty brushes..the liner, the #4 flat and the mighty pastry brush, just waiting to go! All they needed was me and an idea. So a few days back I said I was going to paint a winter landscape scene step by step. If thats what I said I had better do it. Stay on the reservation.

So with a nostril full of Vespa fumes I laid in a a couple of soft colors that not only just look great together but occur naturally early in the morning during winter as the early sun burns off the mist allowing the soft glow of the yellow sun to bleed through.

Next was the foreground. Snow is white but oddly only when in sun and when it is overhead and you are looking pretty much down on it otherwise it is grey/blue. In fact it behaves a lot like water reflecting a notch darker than the tone of the sky. So with that powerful bit of observation I made during my one and only skiing effort I painted in the foreground.

So far so good. Now for a bit of joining. Bleed these 2 areas together at the skyline and we have a pretty handy atmospheric curtain for a winter landscape

Enough for today. Back to the Vespa and more repairs!

See you tomorrow for some trees.....

Happy painting!