Our teacher handed this source image, which is of a painting, as an assignment. I don’t know the artist of the source, so I can’t credit it.
This provided us a lot of stuff to work on:
- the clouds
- the stone wall of the barn facing us
- the stones and stump in the foreground
Sky and Snow
Putting in the sky was great fun. Using a wet-in-wet technique, I spread some Cobalt Blue in the top. Then, while still wet, I used a Viva paper towel, accordian-folded and twisted, to take out the paint and form the clouds. After my first removal, the teacher noticed my clouds were repeating the line of roof peak, so I took more out to keep that from looking odd.
The hill was very very pale Cobalt Blue and Cobalt Blue Violet. This went in wet on dry, with some stronger streaks to make the snow look like it’s drifting a little bit.
The mountains in the distance in the source image were a bit more distinct, I wanted to make mine less so.
Starting at the top, I put in some thick Aureolin to provide the such catch of the tips, and added a little Quin Gold below that. From the bottom, I used the same pale wash from the hill: Cobalt Blue and Cobalt Blue Violet. While the bottom was wet, I stippled in Sap Green and a little French Ultramarine, with just a little bit of Payne’s Grey.
The opposite side just had a bit of the Sap and FU stippled in.
The Stone Wall, plus rocks
The stone wall is perhaps one of the most fascinating things I’ve done.
Before starting any painting, I decided to mask off the parts of the barn I didn’t want to touch:
- the roof edges
- the hay door
- the roof of the building going out to the right
I started with a pale wash of Raw Sienna, then mixed up some varying strengths of Raw Sienna and Cobalt Blue Violet.
When the first wash was done, I started putting in “bricks” with each of the varying tones. I felt it was starting to get too uniform, so then I taped the edges of the wall, and did the stone work by closing my eyes.
The stones in front are my nemesis, like all stones. I used the same paints as the wall: Raw Sienna, and varying mixes of Cobalt Blue Violet.
Barn Details and Shading
Taking off all the masking fluid, I set in the details on the barn.
The wall on the left was done in Aureolin, and the wooden walls were done with Burnt Sienna.
The shadow under the eaves of the roof are in chromatic black of French Ultramarine and Quin Burnt Orange.
More work in the foreground, putting in more stone tones, and the stump of the tree. The stump is the classic combination of QBO on the trunk, very wet, then on the shade-side, lining in some FU so they mingle. This is one of my favourite things to paint.
Deeper Foreground Rocks
The foreground was still not distinctly saying “rocks” so I started to put even more values in them. Combining QBO and FU in various ways, I added more shading and depth, separating them with shadoews.
I added grasses and twigs to the foreground as well, using Tony Couch’s technique to cross them.
For the barn details, I used a Micron 0.01 marker to put in the board lines and some of the edges.
Signed, final versions