New painting: Frosty Afternoon Walk

"I decided go out for some fresh air and to admire the blue sky. Winter makes me want to hibernate and stay inside wrapped up in over-sized clothes -- but when the clouds clear away and the sun shines, I feel the desire to go venture into the woods. The fresh hoarfrost on the branches makes me feel in awe of the cold winter. Hoarfrost, bright moonlit nights, and dancing Aurora are my favourite things about winter time. As I stand looking up into the branches, ice crystals float down and sparkle in the sunlight, making me feel like a child again in some magical fairytale."

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"Frosty Afternoon Walk" Original watercolour painting by Cheyenne Christensen 2019

I haven't made many "personal" paintings this year. I want to be a prolific creator, but I've had a hard time finishing paintings that I'm happy with. I've been working on commissions consistently, and I've been focusing on other creative outlets and my learning/studying endeavours. Perhaps that's a healthy thing -- to let the seasons of your life (and heart) transition and take a break, and then come back when you feel refreshed and inspired.

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The painting above is inspired by a photograph that I took two years ago. It's by the Winnipeg River where I live here in Manitoba, Canada. There are open spots on the river that don't freeze all winter (due to the rapids), and therefore, when it gets very cold outside, everything gets covered in a layer of beautiful hoarfrost. That is one of the few nice things about those dreadfully cold times in January-February. It's hard to leave the warmth of the indoors, but once you do, the beauty of winter makes going outside worth it.

I was greatly inspired by the bright blue sky contrasting against the white frost-covered trees. I had never painted frosty deciduous trees before, so this was going to be a nice learning opportunity. Once I figured out how I wanted to recreate the look of the frosty trees, I happily got to painting! In this blog post I'll take you on a walk through of the process of making this painting.

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First layer:

First thing, I pre-wet the sky area for a wet-in-wet wash, then painted in a mix of Phthalo Blue and Quinacridone Red. I decided to use the salt technique to replicate the look of frost on the tree-tops, so I sprinkled the salt on the edge of the sky area when the paint was still quite wet. Once that was dry, I brushed all the remaining salt granules off. At first, I wasn't completely happy with the result as I thought that the sky colour should've gone down lower on the page, but I kept working with what was there and I ended up loving how it all turned out.

I've made a separate blog post where I explain more in depth of how I used the salt technique to create the look of snowy/frosty trees. Here's the link to that blog post if you are interested: https://artbycheyc.wixsite.com/artbycheyenne/post/a-technique-for-creating-frosty-snowy-branches-in-watercolour

Second layers:

Once the sky was finished I started on the trees. I painted the bulk shape of the background tree line with a thin mix of Raw Sienna, Quinacridone Red, and Phthalo Blue. I tried to make it gradate from light and warm to darker and cool in tone. At the bottom of the tree line I used negative painting to leave out some shapes to suggest that there is dried grass still sticking out of the snow. Then I added some of that Raw Sienna to the grass sections with a fan brush to create the look of individual grass strands. This is also when I painted some shadows on the snow and trail.

Third layers:

Now I needed to make a few trees in the foreground distinct and visible. I determined where I wanted the trees placed, then I lifted some of the paint off of where the trunks would be with a damp brush. My paper (Canson Moulin du Roy) lets the paint lift up nicely. Once the trunks were a lighter tone I used a dark mix of paint to outline them and added some of those signature markings that poplar trees have -- I even added bear claw marks on two of the trees! It is very common here to see old claw marks on the trunks of the poplar trees made by bears.

Then I painted some branches. I didn't want to paint too many individual branches as they're supposed to be covered in hoarfrost and wouldn't necessarily be distinguishable, but just enough so the viewer knows what it is they're looking at.

Loose and simplified lines to suggest branches

Bear claw mark and glitter highlights

Fourth layers:

I decided that the background trees needed another layer to darken them and to make the foreground trees stand out a bit more. I just used the same colours and painted around the tree trunks and grass shapes. At this point I was really happy with how everything was coming along. I got the idea to add some sparkly watercolours to the tree tops -- I thought it would be a fitting element to add to this wintery painting! I loved it so much that it quickly spread to all corners of the painting! A little here and a little here! :)

*Heart Eyes* So sparkly!

The sparkly watercolours perfectly represent ice crystals catching the sunlight

Final touches:

I moved around the painting adding some more final touches here and there. Some more glazes of colour, darkening the branches and tree-markings and adding some animal tracks in the snow. I decided to make some white details with gouache... That was exactly what the painting needed! It gave it more dimension and interest.

White details with gouache.

Then it was time to sign it. Signing my work is always anxiety inducing as I don't want to ruin a good painting with a crappy signature! Thankfully, it went well. This painting doesn't really look like the photograph that it was inspired by, but that is fine with me. I feel as though I truly captured the essence of what this place means to me and how I feel when I go for a walk there on frosty winter days. I have fond memories of this place from going for walks there with my childhood dog and now with my sweet cat. Creating this painting was a joy and it makes me happy. I look forward to painting more frosty winter scenes in the future!

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and I hope it can be helpful to learn about the steps that I took to make this painting! If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post, email me at artbycheyc@gmail.com or you can contact me on my website here.

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Til next time,

Cheyenne~