Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Snow!

"First Snow"
12" X 16" Oil on Panel
I've wanted to paint snow for years now but we never get snow where I live. I've also not been anywhere near snow for around 15 years. Before that I was up to knees in snow every winter and saw plenty of it when I served 3 years in Germany in the Army....we lived in it over there. Snow has such a peaceful look to it. I really like the contrasts in color and nice strong shadows you can get in a snow scene so this is my first attempt at snow. The image is out of my imagination and from memory of looking at many a snow picture....and some fond memories of working in it, shoveling it, sleeping in it and falling in it.
A detail image from the painting....

3 comments:

Teresa said...

This is beautiful Ron! You captured it perfectly!

Unknown said...

Lovely image but with a sense of hesitation I'd like to make an observation. The lightest tone is present on the illuminated side of the tree. Where there is snow invariably the lightest tones are found in the snow itself otherwise the snow looks dirty.

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Teresa,
Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them. Still, this is my first snow scene and I knew there were going to be errors, haha. I'm finding them and hearing about them from WC'rs which is helpful...working to fix all.

Hi Mick,
Thanks too buddy. Good observations on the highlights. I spent today fixing things on this. Another thing is this photo...the more I look at it compared to the painting the more I'm horrified I even uploaded it. The orange reflected colors look way to strong here...in fact, they weren't that strong in the painting but I still decided to tone them down today since my camera snags them up like free candy.

Toning down the background tree and reshaping it too...softening the snow edges etc....what a learning curve this one has thrown me but that's good! It was such fun painting a snow scene that I'd love to do more. Needing to work out how to do them correctly would be an important step, hahaha. Thanks for the comments Mick....much needed!