Painting Progression-Sleigh Bells-Step 6

The mood of the painting starts to change rapidly as I begin to paint in the middle ground.  The muted tones of the snow on the large pine trees on the right side of the picture create a nice contrast to the brighter white of the snow on the ground leading into the foreground.  These tree branches keep the viewer's eye from leaving the picture and frame the focal point of the colorful red barns that the horses are approaching.

Painting Progression-Sleigh Bells-Step 5

Now I switch to alkyd paint, bringing subtle color and cloud forms into the winter sky.  I usually paint from light to dark and from distance to foreground, as I am in this instance.  Next I paint the most distant hills with soft tones tinted with blue to accentuate a feeling of distance.  As I move forward I add more local color and detail to the hills creating a depth to the picture.  The nearest hills have a strong suggestion of trees and snowy spaces between them.  The background now has a sense of reality that I like.

Painting Progression-Sleigh Bells-Step 4

I am still working with acrylic paint, but now I begin blocking in local color in the sky, hills, buildings, trees and horses and their harness.  This gives me a basic color map of how the painting will look and how the colors will relate to each other as I continue to build my painting.  It is wise to establish an under painting, that is blocked in quickly.  Adjustments and improvements and even complete re-do's are easily done at this point.  If you spend a great deal of time finishing off an area, then find it isn't working properly in relation to the rest of the painting, it can be very hard to bring yourself to change it, thus compromising the finished piece. 

Painting Progression-Sleigh Bells-Step 3

I am still working in acrylic paint at this stage in order to get my underpainting established quickly and simply, without the need for any drying time between sessions.  I use my mixture of burnt sienna and cadmium red to wash in tones in the distant hills, the buildings, trees and snow.  As I move further into the foreground, I use heavier, darker mixtures of the same colors. Next I add more detail in the trees and the harness on the horses using burnt sienna and burnt umber.  This simple, monochromatic approach is already establishing the lights and shadows in the painting as well as creating a good illusion of depth at the same time.  This will give me a good basis to build my painting on.

Painting Progression-Sleigh Bells-Step 2

As I usually do, I now tone the canvas with a warm tone of burnt sienna and cadmium red, mixed with a large quantity of mat medium.  This allows the mixture to remain quite transparent, there by preserving my sketch beneath.  At this point I am using acrylic paint, because it dries very quickly.  After I complete my initial underpainting, I will switch to alkyd paint, a type of oil medium which I do my finished paintings with most often.  It is fine to paint over acrylic paint with oil based paints, but never the other way around.

Painting Progression-Sleigh Bells-Step 1

It's time to post another painting showing the progressive steps I took to complete it.  Once again, this painting features horses, this time a team of Belgians in harness.  The title of the painting is "Sleigh Bells", which adorn the showy harness on the backs of the horses.  Not all of my paintings are of horses, but so far all of my posts have had them in them.  Maybe the next one will be different!

I started this painting on a 16 X 24 inch stretched canvas, sketching the main elements with a number 2 pencil.  A softer pencil is very black and smudgy on the gesso priming of the canvas. When the sketch is complete, I give it a light spray of workable fixative to hold the pencil when I tone the canvas with acrylic medium in the next post.

Painting Progression-Moonlight Travelers-Step 7

I paint in the near horse, keeping it whiter and more detailed than the off side horse, again to create a feeling of depth and to control the viewer's eye.  Lighter objects, with more detail and contrast attract more attention in a picture.  The sleigh and occupants are painted in, along with any final details and accents here and there.  The last thing is my signature, and the painting is complete! 

 If you are interested in originals or prints of my work, please visit my website and see what is available.  I am also always happy to discuss commissions if you have a special project in mind.