First painting of 2018

From the outlines you can probably guess where this piece is going. There will be some challenges because I haven't worked out all the transitions. Numerous thumbnail sketches might have given me a couple of hints, but I opted to go right for my brushes. Sometimes diving in and trusting your intuition can yield the best results. Guess we will find out.

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Safari Club International has named me the 2018 Artist of the Year. My painting Stars and Stripes Forever is the featured piece and will be auctioned at the 2018 Convention in Las Vegas, Jan 31 - February 3. In addition, 125 canvas giclees were made of the painting and will be distributed to Safari Club chapters across the country.

Happy New Year! I hope 2018 exceeds your expectations and is filled with wonderful surprises.

Finished

Snowfall

26" X 35"

Original Oil

  

Painting and repainting

Some artists use a palette knife to paint. I use one to mix paint - and scrap it off. The lower dark left section I painted three? four? times. If you add up all the changes it was more than that. Just as I thought "that is it", I'd take a second look. No. Time to move some paint around, add lighter and darker areas. After taking a break or seeing it the next morning, I'd decide to scrap off that section and start over. There are just a few more adjustments to make so I think I can put down the palette knife and move on.

For the foreground snow I am increasing the hue. There are passages of cerulean blue along with the purple tones. Below, the last of the "white" is painted.

Still more snow

With the temperature 22 degrees here, it is not hard to imagine snow.

I removed the snow "blob" over the antler on the right. Originally I thought it would nicely highlight the antler but it was merely distracting.

With the vertical board removed which supports my hand rest, the whole painting is visible.

More done

The right lower side was especially tricky. I wanted some detail but not so much that your eyes were drawn to that spot. It took some playing around so the paint would suggest detail without screaming look at me. If you click on the image to see it larger, you can see a couple of splashes of "royal blue" (ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, titanium white) thrown in to give depth and tie the foreground to the distant background trees.

Trees, Snow, and more snow

I'm up to using five brushes now. Each is designated for a range of colors. One of the advantages of oil paint is that it works so well for blending the edges which makes the painting feel natural and not static nor cut-out.

Thanks for following along. As you can see, this piece is slow going.
Stay tuned.