Let it snow by Tim Fisher

Equipment

Long flats, Nos 4 and 8

Round, No 6

Mountcard, either gessoed or unprimed

This article was originally published in the January 2011 issue of Leisure Painter

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Colours

Cadmium yellow

Cadmium red

Ultramarine

Burnt sienna

White

Easy methods to counteract the fast-drying nature of acrylics and produce sparkling snow scenes.

Some painters are put off by acrylics as they dry too quickly for satisfactory blending or they are too bright. But there are easy ways around this. Thicker, heavy-body paint can be used in different ways to slow the drying time – and the brightness of acrylics can be tempered by selecting familiar, traditional colours and keeping to a simple palette.

Colour mixing

If you are new to acrylics, all you need to begin is a good introductory set of primary colours. I have chosen the following selection from Daler-Rowney’s Heavy Body range:

Cadmium yellow
Cadmium red
Ultramarine
Burnt sienna
White

The three bright primary colours are used to create all the secondary colours you’ll need and the addition of burnt sienna allows for duller colours and greys to be mixed. Acrylics are surprisingly transparent so, to achieve really strong darks, black might also be required. I like to use black acrylic ink so that I can draw with it as well.

To help understand the limited palette, I’ve developed a notation using three triangles (below). The points on the upright triangles represent the three primaries: red, yellow and blue. One triangle shows dull colours (left), the other, bright (right). The inverted triangle (bottom) represents secondary colours: violet, orange and green. As you can see, it’s possible to work with just three bright primary colours and a dull red, such as burnt sienna, which is useful for greys, darks and making dull yellows for skies.

I’ve laid out the selected starter colours on the bright and dull primary triangles. All the missing colours can be added as secondary mixes from this basic primary palette. Further subtle colours can also be produced from these basic colour combinations. Tonal adjustments are made by the addition of white.

One of the dangers of painting snow scenes is that you end up with large tracts of the painting predominantly covered with white paint. So adding big skies, melting snow or texture often offers relief from this and adds welcome warmth to the painting.

Fast-drying acrylics can be off putting, but there are techniques that take advantage or sidestep this problem entirely. Derbyshire Lane demonstrates one technique of overcoming fast drying and turning it to an advantage.

Demonstration - Derbyshire Lane

Take the No.8 Flat brush and loosely mix a small quantity of cadmium red (hue) with ultramarine and white. Stab rather than stroke the brush onto the surface of the card and work downward, introducing brown and yellow in the lower half. Towards the base of the painting, reduce the white and add stronger colours. The stabbing action produces a nice abstract effect with some interesting textures in evidence. Leave to dry.

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1. Once dry, apply a sloping strip of masking tape to denote the base of the distant blue grey hills. To create the hill shapes, use the No. 6 Round and horizontally stroke partially mixed blue, reds, browns and white. Use slightly stronger brown near the masking tape. Remove the masking tape and add a little white below it using dry strokes. Leave to dry.

2. Reposition a new strip lower down. Taking the big brush, pick up blue and brown and drag the paint upwards from the tape to denote the trees. If the application becomes too heavy, dab some white back in for sky holes.

3. Remove the tape and add grey blobs below to represent sheep.

4. Take a few moments to check measurements (above). The model of the world we carry in our heads often conflicts with reality and this can be especially evident when drawing a lane, which recedes into the distance. Check how high up the picture the lane disappears around the corner; where it enters at the base of the painting; and the rough angle of the verges. Beware of fence posts; as they recede into the painting, the distance between them almost halves and they don’t always line up on their top edges.

5. Draw the lane with black ink. Use a fine No. 6 Round to create expressive lines.

1. Paint the foreground snow using thick white with the occasional hint of blue and brown for added texture.

2. More dry-brush work can be applied over this, starting with the mass of trees on the left-hand side. Use broad upward strokes with the large brush and blue with a hint of brown. The heavy consistency of Daler-Rowney Heavy Body acrylics lends it itself to this technique, as the dry strokes scumble over the dry textured paint.

3. Mix yellow and red with a hint of brown and drag over the snow to represent the dead grass. Add shadow tones using blue, red and white.

4. Create the fine grasses with a brush from a cheap set that you would find in almost any newsagent. These have thicker bristles than Artists’ brushes. I cut off all the bristles bar two or three, which creates a nice springy brush for fine work. Add water to dilute the paint then flick on the dead grasses.

5. To finish, add distant scudding birds and a footpath sign pointing off into the distance.