Advancing with Watercolor "Falling Snow" Wet into Wet

Edges  - Soft edges

There are few things as beautiful as falling snow - it adds a soft filter to the world and a quietness as well. The moment the snow starts falling  we are more. Aware of depth and space - the soft edges and pale shades of gray make the space tangible. Of course as artists we value this view of the natural world as it also reflects our inner state - a state of calm embrace and receiving.

The falling snow inspires poets, and musicians as well Vivaldi, List, and Offenbach wrote marvelous pieces based on falling snow…Frost, Longfellow, and Bashō wrote upon the theme of falling snow as well..

Edges

In recreating the feeling that falling snow creates a study of edges - in particular - soft edges gives the watercolorist a wonderful new skill, taking advantage of the media in its wet state

What will you need this week

This week we will do a couple of “explorations “ creating the effect of falling snow . To do this we will need a few new materials. Salt - I am using course Sea Salt, and iodized salt - primarily because of the size difference though I have also used Kosher salt for good effect. The experiments will be done on small soap pieces of paper  adding the salt with a thought towards timing

I am using burnt Sienna, ultramarine blue, Paynes gray, some yellow ochre, Prussian green, and white (Holbein Titanium White)

Brushes

A large flat 2” and a 1 inch flat, a couple of sabelette rounds large and small..

Tape, spay bottle, paper towel, hair dryer

This weeks Drill

Our approach is experimental - I want to try several ways of creating snowfall on a few pine trees. We will be using wet into wet technique to do this/ I start nay wetting the page thoroughly  with a wide brush and tinted water

Then I paint a loose background with weak colors,

While the surface is very wet I switch my brush and add some stronger pigment -into the background creating shapes of pine trees….

Then I wait a few minutes and observe the shone on the paper - as it starts to fade I will add a small amount of the salt

There magic takes a few minutes to unfold

In the second study I begin in the same way but instead of salt I add clean water.

Both methods produce a wonder random feel and are relatively easy to control