I did this demo last Monday but wasn’t happy with it. First the trees were too dark and the wrong shape. Then I killed the sky! Finally today I got it back out and added warmer color to the sky and worked some more on the trees and snow and decided to call it quits! I did a watercolor underpainting in the sky and distant field that did little for me. Used hard pastel everywhere else. The original picture was one that my husband thought was very boring, so I had the challenge of coming up with something more interesting. I’ll include the original photo with this. The main differences are fewer trees and light on the snow. I also gave more emphasis and shape to the field behind and added the fence. This is it for snow pictures! While it is snowing now, I think I’ve had enough! We are all ready for spring.
Winter Fields, 16 x 20, Pastelbord
Reference photo
I really liked this post, as I am trying to break free of being photo-dependent! I have very much enjoyed your blog since joining it a few weeks ago. nice art and good blog!
THanks so much. I appreciate it. This isn’t a great painting but it was fun working with a photo that needed improvement. It took me some years before I could look at photos with the confidence to change them. Now I always ask myself what needs to be changed and there is almost always something. But one of the nice things of working from photos is that we have the time to work on it and think about it–unlike working outside!