Artist_Demonstration

Once that wash has dried, I begin to add the exposed ground and trees. It is important to pay attention to shapes. They should be interesting and follow the established contour of the hillside. Since they are in the warm sunlight the colors are warm. I have again varied the colors to provide interest. Notice that there is very little detail. If the shapes are correct the eye will provide imagined detail. This is done by careful handling of the brushwork. The trees are very calligraphic. You do not want to try to paint detail because paint over paint will make your picture look mudddy and overworked.

I wanted to "push" the mountain further back in the distance so I added another light blue graded wash to the snowy areas to indicate a shadowed depression. This gives the area much more depth.

This section is intended to let you see how I work and my approach to painting.
1 The first thing I do is start with a light pencil sketch to indicate the basic shapes in my layout. Be careful not to make the lines too dark as once the graphite has become wet it can be difficult or impossible to erase later.
2 The next step is to do a series of wet-into-wet washes. This works well for the sky and allows me to add a light color glow to areas like the shadowed snow and sunlit hillside as well as introduce color to the water. Doing the sky and base water color at the same time ensures a color consistency between them.
3 Once those washes are dry, I begin to put in the mountain grays. Notice that it is not all the same color! It is important to vary the color slightly to add interest. After the first application of color is dry I added some overpainting in the same colors to create a look of dimension in the rock.
4 Next I added a wash of warm color where the snow is hit by the warm early-morning sunlight. Again, notice I have varied the color and values to create the illusion of form.
5 Once that wash has dried, I begin to add the exposed ground and trees. It is important to pay attention to shapes. They should be interesting and follow the established contour of the hillside. Since they are in the warm sunlight the colors are warm. I have again varied the colors to provide interest. Notice that there is very little detail. If the shapes are correct the eye will provide imagined detail. This is done by careful handling of the brushwork. The trees are very calligraphic. You do not want to try to paint detail because paint over paint will make your picture look mudddy and overworked. I wanted to "push" the mountain further back in the distance so I added another light blue graded wash to the snowy areas to indicate a shadowed depression. This gives the area much more depth.
6 Next I began painting the back layer of rocks that jut into the lake. I have varied the values and color to keep them form looking flat. I used ultramarine blue and burnt umber as they make a nice gray where they blend. I did not paint both sections of rock at one time as I wanted to leave a light edge between them to help keep them separate. Also, I added a darker blue wash to the snowy area beside the rocks. Because it is in shadow it needs to be toned down.
7 Once that was dry, I added the second rock area, the distant shoreline and the dark foliage in front of the snow bank.
8 Now I added some detail to the rocks using mixtures of burnt umber and ultramarine blue. Even here it is important that you keep varying the color as you paint to provide interest and the appearance of light changes. Again I want to point out that the trees are simply painted, using the brush calligraphically to indicate basic shapes. Look how I varied the color using a bright yellow-green for the tops of the two trees to indicate sunlight grazing their tips.
9 The vegetation is bright yellow green from all the spring snowmelt and sunshine. I worked this area wet into wet to give it volume as the darks indicate shadowed areas.
10 Lastly, I added a graded blue wash to the lower quarter of the painting in order to provide additional depth and tone down the immediate foreground forcing the eye to move back into the painting.