Let’s Paint a Winter Landscape!

Oh boy! How I love winter! It always seems that I get impatient for the next season to arrive, I start to daydream about it and then I have to paint it way before it starts!

So here we go:

Step 1: Here is the rough sketch on wallis pastel paper using vine charcoal. I always like to see where I’m going before I go. The charcoal will wash off a little when you go to step 2 but it won’t wash off completely so you’ll be able to keep your orientation.

Step 2: The lovely under wash! This is one of the most fun steps to complete! I sprayed the whole paper with a mist of water, grabbed my watercolors and laid down the foundation for this magical winter scene. Remember, we’re not going for details so let your colors bleed and blend. Cerulean blue for the sky, alizarin crimson for distant pines, and sap green with a little indigo blue for the closer pines. Do this step real fast because you want your colors to melt together. Use what’s left over on your pallet for the stream and some concentrated sky paint for the snow shadows.

Step 3: Let step 2 completely dry. Now were getting serious! Make a line of closer pines with Unison dark pastels. You can use a dark blue, you can use a dark green, you can even use a dark purple. Get wacky. Unison pastels are able to get real dark unlike the darkest Rembrandt Pastels, which will frustrate you if you try to make them work. Don’t forget a little bit of snow on the pine boughs, not white though…that would be too harsh, use a soft blue or purple to represent snow in the shade.

Step 4: Finally, add some snow on the land with the lightest blue you have. I also added warm colors like yellows and oranges to the highlights on the snow mounds. A deeper purple was added to the snow shadows and the cutest little snow droplets in the stream was made. These snow droplets represent snow gathered on top of some large rocks in the stream. When including something in the water don’t forget to give it some reflection or it won’t look like it belongs.

From the Pines
5×7 Pastel

This painting will hopefully be on display and for sale at the LaGrange Art Gallery November – December. If you would like to purchase it before then you can contact me here: ckane7272@aol.com .

I hope you enjoyed this step by step painting demonstration!