Saturday, March 25, 2023

Dome Staircase Pile of Snow


Painting near campus I found another challenging scene to continue my recent exploration of perspective. The scene contains the sports dome up in the background, a steep staircase going through the middle, and a large pile of dirty snow to the right. Balancing out the elements is a tree branch hanging in the top left, with the beginnings of spring leaf buds. To properly assess the perspective I held the paper up vertically and eyeballed the intersection points for the top and bottom of the staircase. Then I connected the points with two straight lines. The spaces between the stairs were done with a single brown brushstroke and some texturing afterwards. In the past few months I have painted snow in every way, piled high, piled low, melting, falling, clean, and dirty. To paint dirty snow I start with the pale yellow and blue of the snow, then drop in some umber (PBr7) and let it partially dry. Then I daub on more umber and finally carbon black. As it dries, the daubing becomes less fuzzy and more textured which gives the sensation of dirt and grit.

Dome Staircase Pile of Snow,  watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, March 2023 (No. 3417b)

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