Spring Snow
Photo Reference
In the winter I walk my dog in the woods near my home and often stop to admire interesting shadows on the snow. I snap quick photos with my phone and often return to my studio to paint the scene while the light and colors are fresh in my mind. The phone camera doesn’t capture much detail but there’s enough visual information to get me thinking about composition and how to create a more expressive watercolor.
STAGE 1 THE VALUE PLAN
Creating a small value sketch is my first step before moving to a larger painting. I create a composition in my sketchbook and with Payne’s grey watercolor, I sketch in where the lights, mid-tones and darks will be.
STAGE 2 THE PENCIL SKETCH
I draw in the main shapes with a 2B pencil, focusing on the curves of the rocks and the spacing between trees. At this stage, there’s no need to draw in any fine details. I’ll get to those later with a rigger brush.
STAGE 3 THE SNOW SHADOWS
Since the snow shadows are critical, I start there. I mix up a wash of cerulean blue, indanthrene blue and permanent alizarin crimson, and paint the shadows with a very wet squirrel mop brush.
STAGE 4 THE DARK TREES
I want to establish my darkest values early on, so I paint the big trees first, varying the color of each one. I mix indanthrene blue and burnt sienna in varying ratios, leaving a few white highlights for branches and snow.
STAGE 5 SKY, DISTANT TREES AND HOUSES
I paint the sky and distant trees wet-in-wet, creating a soft-edged contrast to the foreground trees. Here I drop cerulean blue into a pre-wet sky and then add a row of grey trees along the horizon line, leaving some white shapes for the snow-covered roofs.
STAGE 6 THE ROCKS
Using a pointed round brush, I paint the dark foreground rocks with a mix of indanthrene blue and permanent alizarin crimson. I make sure some edges of the strokes are textured to create an edge where snow meets rock.
STAGE 7 SMALL TREES AND BRANCHES
Spring Snow, watercolor, 11 x 15" (28 x 38 cm)
The final stage is to add details: trees both near and far, as well as small branches and the few remaining leaves clinging to them. I make sure to paint distant trees in a lighter value than the foreground ones.