Whilst autumn is my favourite season I do love paintings of snowy scenes and it’s this time of year when I start to think about how amazing it would be to live somewhere where you could see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). So imagine my excitement when a friend sent me a link to some watercolour tutorials on Etsy and there, just sitting there was…..Midnight Aurora……and for under £5!
I was able to get stuck in straight away as it was an instant download. It is text instructions which is different form other tutorials but it also has an outline sketch that you can use and a high res. image of the finished piece so lots to refer to and having text does mean that you put your own artistic slant on the picture which is good. I was really pleased with the results. I painted it in 3 different sizes to practice and try out the techniques. The largest was around A4 and the smallest 10cmX10cm (chunky sized!)
I’ve found that if I make the image black and white I can see what kind of tonal values I have….I could make those foreground trees darker/deeper and the same with the water and the shadow on the base of the snow. It’s a lot easier to see in black and white.
I have to say I am pretty pleased with it and especially the shadows on the mountains. I sent a comment into the lovely lady who made the tutorial and she sent me back really lovely feedback.
Inspired by the sky I used the techniques on a sketch from my sketchbook (drawn from things I am learning with Tamora LaPorte over at Willowing.) It was a sketch I really liked so I used a light box to transfer it to paper-which is awesome and the light box makes it easy to trace (you can use a window with lots of sunlight or graphite paper too). I love the way it has turned out.