I recently completed this painting for the December project of Watercolor Workshop in which we were to paint something shiny and glistening. I decided that glistening snow would be an interesting subject for this project - easier said than done - as I found out! I did a poured background with indian yellow, antwerp blue, and quinacridone cherry red. After that dried, I thought I could retain snow like shapes by spattering Winsor and Newton Permanent Liquid Mask and then doing my painting over these spatters which would give the appearance of glistening snow - little did I know! It gave an interesting texture to my painting, but it didn't glisten. So - I continued to do my painting and finished it by lifting areas of color for highlights and then spattering white gouache over the surface with a toothbrush. This technique resulted in interesting textures without glistening snow! Oh well................if at first you don't succeed - try something else, I guess!
10 comments:
Well, I like this, whether it glistens or not. I think maybe the values of the snow got too dark to glisten and shine? But it's a very pretty painting with a neat rhythm to the trees.
(You are one of two winners for the give-away at my blog :)
I so enjoy the pouring and yet I haven't really done much with it. Sigh...my studio is finally available now (it doubles as a guest room) and we've had guests for 13 days straight. Thus my post about Renoir today! Gosh I love that painting! Anyway...glistening in watercolor is a tough assignment! There are some iridescent paints available at Daniel Smith and there is an additive you can put in your paint to make it glisten. It is called Iridescent Medium by Winsor Newton. If you had some...you could actually glaze it lightly over areas without changing color and create a glisten effect. I kid you not. It's cool.
Barbara, glistening snow or not, I like this colorful painting. Poured paintings always are always a lot of fun.
All my best for the New Year.
Rhonda...Thanks for commenting on the glistening snow. I am honored to receive a painting of Freda - can't wait to see it in person!
Ginny - I also love the Renoir painting - there is so much to see in it. I have never tried the iridescent paints - guess i associated them more with acrylics than watercolors - and because I usually don't work in acrylics I have gotten any of them. I am currently branching out into pouring with liquid acrylics, so I think there will be some iridescent paints in my future. I think the idea is fascinating. Glad you are in your studio again!
Thanks, Christiane, for the positive feedback and Happy New Year to You, also!
A very Happy New Year to you Barbara, and just keep on paintin'
Happy New Year!!
Barbra Joan and Laura,
Happy New Year to you both!
This painting is wonderful! I love all the colors and the snow is very realistic.
--Jane
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