Recently, in my watercolor classes, we have been working with winter as the subject for a painting.
In one class in particular, I was stressing the feeling of winter. After planning the actual scene, I drew it on the watercolor paper. I chose three primaries (aureolin, permanent rose, and cobalt blue) and applied them in a wet-in-wet wash over the entire surface of the paper. I was looking for an atmosphere of winter light. The yellow was placed slightly above the horizon line, and it was then, encircled by the rose and then the blue. By moving the paper in a rocking motion, I allowed the colors to fuse softly.
After the paint was thoroughly dry, I applied masking fluid to the tree shapes. Not having decided the final color/value of the trees, the masking fluid gave me the freedom to continue working with a larger brush (2 inch flat). I wanted to have the opportunity to lay in more free flowing washes if need be.
It was at this point that I added cadmium yellow/orange to the three primary colors. I wanted to increase the warmth in the area of light. At the same time, I increased the warmth downwards from the warm yellow. This was all done as a wet-in-wet wash.
I had been working with cobalt blue up until now, but the sky area was needing a stronger value. I added phthalo blue and ultramarine blue to the palette. I rewetted the sky area and stroked the blues from theoutside edges inward. The yellow area was touched only with water. I added the blues to the front side of the sugar shack in a very light value. The blues were also added to the tree line above the building.
To more clearly see the spatial depth, I needed to develop the background mountain shapes. I kept the values light in the area of the light and deepened the values as they moved away from the light. Texturing was added into the tree line behind the sugar shack.
Now was the time to start working on the sugar shack itself. I first applied a wash of the yellow/orange to the roof and then added a rich reddish brown mix (made from the primaries) into the still wet color.
I added more texture detail to the building and more value to the tree line. I decided that the sky needed more value. I added a mix of indigo and phthalo blue, working inwards from the outer edges. I did not want to use indigo alone as it can be very dense, resulting in an opaque color.
It was time to remove the masking fluid from the trees. I created various grays from the primaries and applied them in different values to the trees. I continued to add more violet (permanent rose and ultramarine blue) to the snow in the foreground. With a few more detail adjustments, THE SILENT NIGHT came into being.
