Winter Fox

Here in Mid Devon it feels like winter has suddenly begun. The temperature has dropped and there was a brief splattering of snow this morning before it changed to the inevitable rain that we in the South West of England have more than our fair share of.I was safe and warm in my studio room was suddenly reminded of a scene I painted last year that I felt wanted to revisit

 I loved the colours provoked by a photo I had seen of a wintry landscape and me being me could resist adding a fox. So here is my days work in a few easy steps

1. Draw my landscape and add a disk of masking tape for the winters moon

I apologise, it was dark today and my photos aren't great.

2. I use my huge brush to add a lot of water to the sky as gently as I possibly can. I don't want to scratch the paper. I want the washes to look smooth and clear.

 

 

3. I start with a bold blue made up mostly of indigo with some Phthalo  blue too. Working downwards and adding more water as I go

 

Now this bit is tricky because while it is still wet. I add cadmium red and cobalt blue to make clouds and pull of the masking tape ( very carefully) as I want clouds in front of the moon . I also paint some shading on the moon. All while the painting is still wet. It is like juggling and keeping all the balls in the air at once!

4.Now I paint the distant trees and vegetation in a purply haze keeping the bottom part wet to give the impression of a misty cold winter landscape.

 

The line of purple you can see at the bottom is where the paint has collected. I soak that up with a dry brush.

5. Now I leave it to dry and paint in another layer of nearer trees 

 

 

6. Then the fence line with my prominent tree in it. I use small brushes and paint very carefully . I also paint into a wet slightly blue wash so the tree is 'growing ' out of something.

 

My paper is very wet, it sort of works for me and also notice the paper bobbles a bit. I have gotten used to this but you need to be careful in case paint collects in the dips

7. Now I can paint in the fox and add some nearby grasses and twigs and  a flurry of snow for good measure

I hope Mr Fox has somewhere warm to spend the night x