This is Stage 3 of Snow Day:

I have continued to add dark, foundational colors to the wolf. The darks are the foil for the lights. If you do not get your darks in the lights will not “pop” and add that realism that we are looking for. I built the foundation in dark greys, sepia, some warm browns, ultramarine blue(especially in shadows) and black. Then I begin to softly stroke in the lights so that the fur begins to look real. I use mainly white for this but also some cream colors. Go easy-you don’t want to draw in every hair! I also started to add some snow to the background area. To make the nose come forward add a touch of warm color on the muzzle and then add white on top of that.  I use more blue under the chin to push it back. Alternate your warm and cool colors depending on waht you want to come forward in the picture plan and what you want to recede. I think we may have a lesson on bringing attention to the center of interest and go into some design elements.  Please don’t hesitate to email me your questions!

I want to show you how I painted “Snow Day”. I really enjoyed this painting of a wolf  laying down enjoying the snow. I used grey velour paper as the support and a combination of hard and soft pastels.

I began the painting by drawing with my black hard pastel. I like to have a foundational drawing to build on and to keep me on track. I also added some white highlights. I also began to add some background using my white pastel. We want to create some atmosphere around the wolf to create a 3 dimensional look.

You can see that I have already added the eyes. I like painting them. If they don’t turn out right the painting won’t be a success.