As artists we have the advantage if you like to do pieces for people as gifts not just at Christmas, but anytime. People love receiving a piece of hand created artwork especially if you are gifting someone special. They also make great gifts for other people to purchase from you for them to give as a gift. Either way, it’s a fun way to make a little extra money and have fun doing it.

Since we are almost into the winter period painting winter scenes this time can be fun. I will give you some tips and pointers on how to go about this. I recently gave a paint experience for a group of ladies at a church where we did paint a winter scene. They are great because your palette of colors is limited but you can do so much with five or six colors on that palette. On that palette these are the colors I used: Prussian or navy Blue (whichever you have), Cerulean blue, white, black, burnt umber, Hooker’s green, raw sienna.

The method I use for most all landscape paintings is to paint from back to front, and top to bottom. In other words, paint the background completely, then go back and add trees that are advancing toward you. The very first thing you need to determine is the horizon line. This will be the line the white snow really shows. The thing to avoid would be to make the horizon line in the very middle of the canvas. It looks best either below or above depending on how much foreground you want to use. I also drew mine slightly slanted downward to indicate a slight slope in the ground. You can just indicate the line with your sky color with a brush.

The background is a mixture of Prussian blue, a tiny touch of black and a bit of white. I painted the top and edges with this mixture leaving a blank spot in the middle of the sky. While this is still wet go in with a Cerulean blue and white mix and work it with the dark sky to give it a cloudy, drama effect. If you are using acrylics don’t wait too long to do this you want the paint to be wet for blending.

After the sky is to your satisfaction take some of that dark sky color and add more white and Cerulean blue to make a lighter value. Block in some distant pines. Its important to have these shorter than the trees in the foreground because they are further away. But you can vary their height.  With trees coming forward, lighten that same color again and add over some of the background. I use fewer trees as I come forward.

Next, add white to a small amount of raw sienna and paint the entire foreground. This will be your closest snowy area. At this point I painted three large pines on different levels two with their trunks and needles into the snowy area, and one further back.

This is a long tutorial so I am breaking it up into two different commentaries. The rest of the instruction will be published in tomorrow’s posts. Thanks for reading.  I would hope you would try this!