It's that time of year when it starts to get cold, but also as a painter, even the cold months have their beauty. To start the session off, here's a nice little snow scene, and you know I really can't believe it's a year since we started these articles. I remember the first one we started being a winter scene. I am starting off with a very simple outline drawing and a sky wash of ultramarine blue taking out the clouds with a damp brush and drop in a mixture of ultramarine blue and light red, in the bottom bits of the clouds. It's worth noting that you use ultramarine blue for colder skies and cobalt blue for warmer skies.
   

Essential Supplies The items you will need to complete this scene are as follows:- Watercolour Paint   Burnt Sienna Yellow Ochre Raw Umber Cobalt Blue Ultramarine Blue Alizarin Crimson Brushes   1.5" Wash brush 3/4" Wash brush No.8 Round No.3 Rigger

I didn’t start and paint around my foreground trees with the sky wash, instead I painted through them and then just with the squeezed out ¾" wash brush, draw out the paint to form the foreground trees.

Now whilst this clump on the right-hand side is still damp, again with my mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I’m going to add a few tiny touches giving the impression of a few trees in amongst it.

For the middle distance which I left white, I’ve left some criss-crossy bits, and still using a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. Add a little bit of burnt sienna into the middle distance hedgerow before again going on with my ultramarine blue and burnt sienna mix.  Notice I’m not leaving too much white. 

Now coming to the big foreground trees, what I’ve found is it's always better to exaggerate the darkness of foreground trees slightly. So I’m going straight in with a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, practically black.

All of these trees are done with my rigger brush, but don’t try to hold it all stiff and tight, it’s a lovely flick bouncy brush.

Also into these trees I've put a tiny touch of burnt sienna.

A tiny touch of raw umber here and there.  In the track I'm just going to add a little bit of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna mixed fairly dark, but not black, for a few tracks here and there.

And so now it's time for the figure, for which I'm using ultramarine blue and burnt sienna mixed as a black. This is for a little blob for the head.  Now a touch of alizarin crimson for the jacket and again ultramarine blue and burnt sienna for the legs. For the dog again ultramarine blue and burnt sienna as a black, this is just literally a couple of squares with a couple of sticks.

Finally it's shadow time. Again ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, but fairly weak and heavier on the blue.  There we go a very simple little snow scene which should start the painting season off nicely. And there is our first year of articles for the 'Culture' magazine over in the blink of an eye. I look forward to showing you some more painting tips in 2006.