Krysthle's Visual Blog: "Loire sous la neige"

I've finally finished this painting that took what seems to be forever to create! Ok, it was only 6 days (with a 4 day break in between because I couldn't motivate myself to do the tree branches. What? There is like a millions of them to paint!), but still...

In case you are wondering, "Loire sous la neige" means "Loire under snow". And the Loire is a river in France, hence the french name of this painting (and it sounds better in french too!).

In my last painting "Waterfalls", I studied summer light. But in this painting, I explored winter light in a large landscape . The color palette is much more limited.

I used a lot of white gesso to create the snow, ice and light effects.

Colors I used: black, raw umber, yellow ochre, phthalo green and phthalo blue.

DAY 1. May 15th, 2010.
The first step was to quickly sketch without to many details. Notice how there is a boat in my drawing. I tossed it at the end, didn't seem right.

Also, I use masking tape to create clean lines for the final painting.

Next I applied a first wash composed of phthalo blue/burnt umber.

Funny thing about this block of acrylic painting paper is that the four sides are glued to prevent the paper from warping...yet it warps....

...which leads to me to say that masking tape has another benefit: holding paper in place. And it prevents paint from getting on the paper behind it. Gotta love that masking tape!

(cheap $ store masking tape)

Then I place the landscape with the same blue and brown colors.

Big details are added such as background trees and foreground trees.

A few more details later (background trees and right side tree background.) and I can start the delicate work of adding gesso to create light effects and snow. You're probably wondering why I went and scrapped my painting by adding gesso to it like this...you'll see later...

Even more gesso to create the snow/ice impression and a luminous sky. Ok, maybe it's a little too luminous! It feels like my eyeballs are going to pop out. Don't worry, I fix it later on.

I've deliberately gone crazy with this brightly illuminated sky...And I added a dark blue-brown wash.

And so I continue with the gesso. I now am creating a misty background by applying a light to medium wash of gesso.

Also, you might notice that I added a lot of detail in the background (trees are more defined) and in the foreground shrubs have appeared. I also repainted the trees in the foreground so that they wouldn't have a line of gesso crossing them, and reapplied a gesso wash to continue the misty ambiance.

Have you noticed that the lighting of the pictures are getting yellower each time? It's because it's getting later and later at night.

DAY 2, DAY 3, DAY 4, DAY 5

All of them very productive, as you can see.

DAY 6. May 20th, 2010.

It's probably about 5 or 5:30 AM by now, and I have been painting for an hour or two? Doing tiny tiny branches on the part of the painting that you can't see. Casanova, my cat, wants to help out. He just doesn't know yet that I don't need the sponge for this part.

I like to keep this little container with a sponge in it in case I need a drop or two of water to dilute my paint, to correct a mistake on the painting, or noticeably, for Casanova's entertainment.

BOOM! Daytime! And doesn't it look different or what?

More fog. The trees have been repainted with a burnt umber/black mix.

P.S. I've noticed that the trees have been mysteriously changing shapes slowly but surely. Especially the top of the middle ones. It must be the art monster playing pranks again.

An hour later, the sun is out, it's a beautiful day and Casanova is back to check on my progress.

Status: branches finished.

Casanova is inspecting the work, just in case I missed something accidentally.

A phthalo green/phthalo blue wash later. With light and shadows where the snow and ice meet. Also, I`ve added some details to the shrubs. I don`t want to overwork it, it can ruin a painting that is already just fine. So it looks finished to me!