I use a 1/2-inch flat, synthetic brush and alcohol to wash down the pastel, working from lightest areas to darkest, and trying to preserve each color area.
DIY Mini Winter Scene Painting
I don’t know about your weather, but it’s pretty cold and snowy here.The cold weather has been a roller coaster this year. One day is -10, the next is 40 degrees. I’m about over that junk.On a more positive note, the snow and ice is absolutely beautiful and I wanted to capture that in another mini painting, this time with a winter theme. The last two were summer and fall.
If you’d like to make your own, follow the steps below!
Mini winter painting supplies
- paint brushes
- paint palette
- water cup
- paper towels
- mini canvas
- acrylic paint
- light blue
- dark blue
- navy blue
- medium blue
- dark green
- white
- black
Step 1: light blue paint
We’re going to start with light colors first. Paint a light layer of while in the bottom right corner of the canvas followed by light blue. Just dab it on like in the image above.
Think about your light source. It’s going to be the moon and from the upper left corner of the painting. So the clouds will be lighter on the top half and darker on the bottom.
A Pastel Demonstration That Will Make You Pine for the Next Winter White Out
It’s the season of snow flakes and slush, flurries and icicles. How to evoke the crisp, clean look and feel in your next painting? This pastel demonstration from Liz Haywood-Sullivan details just what to do, including the hardest trick to pull off — getting your color values right.
After you explore Liz’s winter wonderland, be sure to get the resource that will allow you to make your own right now. Our Landscape Painting in Pastel Winter Mood Streaming Video is just a click away–instant access as soon as you check out.
Painting the Pastel Landscape in Winter
For The Depth of Winter, Liz used a variety of pastels: Girault Terry Ludwig Diane Townsend Unison Henri Roché For her surface: UART 500-grade sanded paper, mounted on Gatorboard Surface Tip: Work on black Canson Mi-Teintes paper or a sanded paper, such as UART or Wallis, underpainted with a color that will work as the shadow under the snow. Using one of these bases allows you to lay the snow—the light—on top. Mark-making Tip: Make sure your pastel strokes follow the lay of the land, moving horizontally over the ground, so that you are placing the snow by replicating the way it actually falls.
Map Your Drawing
I used a Girault pastel dark enough to see but not so dark as to interfere with the lightest values I’d be using in the painting.
To scale up my image from the reference photo, I marked off my paper into four quadrants, rather than thirds. I did make sure, however, to place my primary shapes and focal point using the Rule of Thirds. For example, the edge where the field meets the background trees is one-third the height of the painting. From there, I used a simple line drawing to indicate just the major shapes.
Add Pastel for Underpainting
Because the pastel I added at this stage would be washed down with alcohol, my selection of colors was based on what color I wanted the paper to be “stained”—the colors I wanted to peep through the final layers of pastel.
I generally chose warm colors that would lend a unifying effect to the finish. For instance, I placed purple in the sky, knowing that the specks poking through the final would connect the sky to the same purples in the brush.
