All Things Fine Art

 Understanding the translucency of snow and the color/value relationships that are played out on it from light is much more complex than one might suspect.

This winter, I've focused on trying to understand and paint snow more effectively. I believe direct observation is essential and frown on painting by formula. For this reason, I’ve spent a lot of time studying the wealth of snow we’ve had on the ground over the past several months. My observations have been recorded in my sketch books as small watercolor studies and value drawings or mentally by just plain LOOKING.

Yesterday, I asked the students in my studio what color they see when they look at snow. Almost everyone said "white"! I picked up a tablet of white paper and they all agreed it was white. I opened the door in my studio and tossed the tablet of white paper onto a snow bank. What a revelation that was to them.  The snow was not white! We look at snow and automatically think white, but when comparing it to something we know is white we find snow has color and value. In fact, white rarely is a consideration when painting snow other than to lighten a hue. I've noted a few of my personal observations below that will perhaps help others do a better job of depicting the white stuff.

1. THERE ARE NO FORMULAS for painting snow. If you are not a winter plein air painter then get in your car, with the window down and SEE the snow. Using an isolator to compare the value and colors of shadow shapes and light shapes helps one to understand the subtle differences that make painted snow look like the real thing.

2. Keep in mind that shadows on snow will always appear darker than they really are due to the fact that they are surrounded by brilliant light color. As a general rule of thumb, snow shadows will be a value range of five (5) or lighter.

3. When starting a painting, thinly block in all snow surfaces from dark to light as you would do with any other subject. As a starting point, use Ultramarine blue (slightly warm as it has red in it) plus white to establish value when indicating cast and other dark shadows. Use Cobalt blue (a neutral clean blue) plus white to establish all surfaces in light.

4. With a bit more paint, adjust these value/color shapes with warmer tones as observed in nature to create form. Keep in mind, a pale green might actually be a warm to the cobalt blue shape.

5. Reflected light is extremely important when depicting snow. Remember, snow is translucent and therefore it absorbs light and color from it's surroundings. Use this phenomena to portray believable snow.

6. Cast shadows beneath a tree may be grayish (without too much color) but as the shadow gets closer to the sky side of the tree shadow the shadow will develop a blue bias.

7. Warm direct light that butts up to a strong cast shadow may render the cast shadow colorless along the merging edge as the brilliance feeds itself to the eye and overcomes the subtlety of the shadow color. This HAS TO BE OBSERVED to understand. You can also see this at work in still life subjects. Usually the form shadow is darkest where it meets light.

8. Undulating snow surfaces may go from a warm yellow through all the colors of the rainbow. Only observation will help one understand where to use yellow, red, green, blue, etc. in depicting the form of such undulations.

9. DON'T try to paint what you are unfamiliar with. If you've not spent time looking at and studying snow you will invariably see it as white and use white paint to represent it...not a good idea at best. ALWAYS keep in mind how light and dark, how warm and cool is the plane you are observing as you progress through the painting .

Painting snow is all about the light and how it plays on this highly translucent and reflective surface. The longer I look, the more fascinating it becomes to me. This is true of any "white" subject. If you have thoughts on this topic, I'd love to hear them....please comment! 

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