One day a heavenly painting, the other day a dragon. Ah, no worries, I was feeling exhausted this morning yet still insisted on painting something which I should not have done. I felt less spirited and took a perhaps too complicated painting with only three colours. Anyway, I gave it a good try yet need to remember certain things here for the future. I should never put snow on freshly painted evergreens with a pallet knife! I went from red to pale to green in 30 seconds!! Another thing would be to really use the environment to the fullest, meaning creating bushes and distant trees where there is way too much space left. So, I tried that and it worked for the better. And last would be to never use an acrylic 2" brush for wiping waters. I took it by accident and had a hell of a time adjusting everything!
So, 25 down, 6 to go and then I have at least one painting from every of the 31 seasons. The challenge is one thing but believe me, I am doing this for fun too!!
I think this is quite difficult painting, because everything here depends on the value more than ever to bring depth and sharpness and define the foreground.
For me recently snow just stopped being simply white. I am looking outside of the window and I see blue, purple and yellow and pink in it. It is never white again after I painted copy of Savrasov Winter and took that exercise to paint realistic still life.
Here in this painting this is only based on the transition between values of one color. Also for this painting I realized it is better to use ready to go Paine's grey color and just white to keep consistency as I had to mix color as I went and ran out of the color 2 times.
I think you did well here. Let it dry a bit and add more very dark values and touches of pure white to add sparkle. This is the only way left to bring the foreground closer.
Think a bit if you took black-and-white picture of the real scene where the darkest spots would be and where the lightest would be and touch up them a bit there.
It is very easy to loose darkness with oil painting, that in fact is used brings depth with that darkness.
Cabin by they way is super good! So nicely built! It is surely in use and well maintained! Somebody is lucky to go there to enjoy the nature. Maybe little-tiny touch of white on the very edge from the side where light hits. You already have 4 steps of value that I see there!
My apologies if I criticized too much.
This painting makes me think always about the value and I know I am bad at it. Unfortunately I cannot stop and think about the value when I paint and this is what is bad for my paintings. This is probably the reason why I cannot step up recently.
Dear MHK, just tried uploading one and it worked as usual. I only got a remark stating that my description must be at least 30 characters. I need to mention however that I noticed the uploading, and the site in general, is little to very much slower then a few weeks ago. Maybe this has to do with the recent changes and attributions made by the web owner. Good luck!
This is lovely and looks like a very challenging painting. I really like the sky. Well done!
Dear Tz, thanks for your cheers! Because of the two colours, it is indeed challenging, that is for sure. The sky was deliberately chosen more dark then Bob's to creating a more stormy atmosphere and thus more contrast.
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I'm trying to upload a new painting but it keeps saying "article id required" how did you upload yours? Love the shading technique