WINTER 2016 PASTEL CLASS Project : Cozy Cottage Week 4

This week I pretty much finished our project I may come in in do some more detail work but for the most part I think it is finished so I hope that you have gotten your paintings to this point.

The first thing I wanted to do was to lightly draw in where I wanted my branches to be coming in from on the left hand side of the painting. From there, I could tell where I was going to put snow and leaves and the branches. To draw them in I used a light lavender color that could easily blend in with anything that I was using just in case I put a branch where I didn't really want it,  remember that when you are having to draw things, using a color that will blend in is a lot easier than trying to erase a dark color.

Once I knew where I wanted my branches I used a medium grey brown and lightly sketched in my branches this is not to say that these are all going to show but it helps me put my snow and leaves on.

Next I wanted to base in the shadow color of the snow on my bush, remember this side of the bush is in shadow so there will be no white in the snow only cool colors. I used a medium blue color for the snow and making rounded shape with my chalk, I created clumps of snow along where I had the branches. I didn't make a long, even shapes I made clumps of color just like snow clumps onto a bush or tree, you can combine some of these clumps you can skip over places, just look at the reference photo of the holly bush to see how snow clumps on a bush.

Once I was happy with my branches and my snow I took my dark green color and I started making leaf shapes. Most of the leaves will show underneath the clumps of snow but some of these leaves will pop out the top and sides of the snow which was one of the reasons why I wanted to put my snow in first so that I could pull leaves out of the snow as I was going. I also came back in later, after I had put my dark green leaves in, with my indigo color which is a very dark blue and added some even darker places mostly up near the corner or right underneath clumps of snow but not too far out to the end this just creates a bit more shadow and dimensions in the tree on the side.

To finish off the bush I took a dark red color for the berries - it should be on the maroon side or purple side - because all of these berries are in the shadows, they will not be a bright flaming red more of a cool red, and I just place them mostly underneath the clumps of snow in between and around the leaves.

I also came back in with some darker shadow colors across the bottom foreground of my snow, I wanted this to be in shadow it helps focus the eye back to the cottage. I blended this and being mindful of where I was, whether it was in the ruts or on top (remember shape of your strokes). I added a few highlights to parts where I thought there might be some scattered light and I went back through and added the brightest lights that I could to the foreground like on the fence and on the tops of some of the clumps of bushes along the road and in the roadway. With that done I came back in with a golden brown color and a darker brown color and added some weeds along the sides by the fence and under the bush and also in the roadway. To some of the weeds I added touches of white like frost or snow and also some highlights at the base to settle them into the snow.

This is basically my painting. I think I will go back in and make some more adjustments and put in some more detail next week but I could just stop right here if I want to so if your painting is to a point where you want to stop and call it done, then you will need to find something to paint this these last few weeks so keep painting and I will see you in class.