Winter Serenity

I tried some different things on this painting.  The sky is different than my others partly by plan and partly by accident.  I wanted a lavendar and pink sky, with dark blue corners.  I put the liquid white base down too skimpy, and the lavendar, pink, and dark blue did not blend well at all.  So I put a layer of liquid white on top of it all and blended it together, then applied prussian blue to the corners  again.  For clouds, the titanium white with slight bright red tint did not stick so well, and I had to add some liquid white to it.  The result was these really delicate clouds which I love.  For the first time, I put a little cloud in front of the mountain.  Background trees were with the fan brush vertically, and using a brown mixed with lavendar mix.  Tall background trees are with a little darker shade of that mix.  Foreground evergreens were done by pushing the large fan brush up instead of down.  This is the first time I tried it, and the result is pleasing.  Sandy says these are optimistic trees since the branches go up, and all my past ones have been pessimistic, lol.  For the cabin, I really let the white get dirty for the roof, and I made the walls much more splotchy than in the past.  The result is a much more relaxed looking cabin.  I had fun doing the snow, just dragging dark colors from the trees, shrubs, and cabin to create shadows as well as the lay of the land.  The fence adds interest and depth by making the posts change in size dramatically from back to front.  I really enjoyed painting this one today with having hardly any idea what to paint...I just decided to practice with a different sky, make "optimistic" evergreens, and build a better cabin.  It all came out just right, and Sandy was the most complimentary of this landscape than any other.  Yay!