Sunlit Birches - A Work in Progress

Today I couldn't get motivated to go down into Peterborough to KAGS for the Still Life class; especially since we had freezing rain overnight and it is going to snow all day and the temperature is 0F (-17.8C) and with the wind chill it feels like -12F (-24.4C).

Instead I decided to do some more work on this painting that I had started earlier this week (see post on 25 January 2016) in the Lucy Manley workshop.

I started in on the sky and added a slightly darker layer of colour into the sky using titanium white, burnt sienna and raw sienna.

Next I touched up the tops of the distant trees on the top of the hill against the sky using various mixtures of ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue, raw sienna, burnt sienna and Hansa yellow.

Using ultramarine blue with a touch of white I darkened the shadows from the main tree and added shadows into the foreground from trees that are outside of the painting.

I added another layer of pure titanium white to the high lit areas of the snow drift against the main tree trunk.

Next I wanted to work on the main birch tree in the foreground.

With the sunlight coming from the left side of the painting I put in the brightest highlights on the right side of the birch tree.

I started with titanium white and added a touch of Hansa yellow to warm it and put this colour in a few areas first.

Next I added a little raw sienna to the mix and worked on the next darker highlight on the left side and toward the center of the trunk.

Then a small amount of burnt sienna was added to darken the mix slightly for areas where the bark has pealed or been damaged.

On the shadowed side of the tree I used white and various mixtures of ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue, burnt sienna, and alizarin crimson.

With a small amount of the second brightest highlight colour I put a mark on the second largest tree as a guide for when I paint that tree on another day as the brightest value.

With not having very much more time to work on the painting I went to the small birch tree in the background and painted it with the blue grey shadow colours.

I will post this painting at a later date once I paint the second largest birch tree.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at the artwork.