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Message
Posted
Can't do much other than look out of the window, because snow, ice, and walking sticks is not a combination made in Heaven. But you do notice things - and even though it's obvious to anyone who stops to think about it, it's useful to reflect on colour and tone, and white in particular, when it snows. Normally, the cottage across the way from us shows up as starkly white, especially in strong sunshine. With thick snow on its roof, and surrounding it, the whitewashed walls look slightly green - as if it's had a colour wash; but it hasn't.
A good reminder to think about tonal values in painting, and what a difference they can make - the difference, often, between a successful painting, and one that just hasn't quite come off and at the time you can't think why.
Posted
I make an awful hash at snow scenes on occasions, other times they just seem to look right. I love painting them all the same.
Tonal values are vital, they can make or break any painting - ignore them or get them just slightly wrong, and your work will look flat and boring - I know this, I've been there.
Posted
I haven't tried snow scenes yet and though I understand such things as radiosity in theory, I am not sure about applying reflected colours in practice. I think it takes a fair amount of confidence to add reflected colours onto objects you know are not normally such colours. Also modification of colour due to context (lightening lights and darkening in the darks) seems easier said than done and that grey played in one area of colour looks a completely different colour than in another because of context is a bit of a mind boggler... still I guess there is no substitute for experience and trying to paint what we see, noticing is the first step.