Snow & Ice, Brrr!

The weather’s turned quite cold this weekend, it’s a bit unseasonal for this time of year and I’ve got an extra layer on…

Looking through some of my favourite photos on Paintmyphoto (you can bookmark them for later) I was drawn to one of a Muskrat in the snow by Rita Marlow – it’s so icy it actually made me feel warmer and it looked like a good one to practise some of the techniques I was trying earlier in the week. I also loved the combination of colours, and while I don’t think I’ve got them quite right on this try, the blues are electric.

Here is the first wash… after saving some white sticks with masking fluid I flooded the paper with water and gently brushed in some colours. The top bands are Ultramarine Blue and lower down it’s Cerulean Blue and a tiny amount of Sap Green (just a tiny bit too much!)

I’m starting to become more aware of the different properties of the individual paints – incidentally, it’s interesting how the mind seems only able to tackle one level of complexity at a time. While I was struggling to get the paintbrush to behave last year and wondering how to get paint on paper ideas such as composition, colour theory, how the paints behave, were impossible to even think about. Anyway, with this piece I should have perhaps considered them earlier as I seem to have got some granulating Ultramarine Blue in an area which should later be smooth water 😛 .