"Peace of Mind" 18x24 Pastel Progression

Here's a quick little post showing you the steps taken to create my painting "Peace of Mind." I really enjoyed working on this painting. It's another scene from the Goldtwhaite Trail in Danville, NH. I also enjoy working in a larger format...not sure why because it's time consuming and I'm very impatient. "Peace of Mind" was accepted into the Newburyport Art Association's Fall Juried Show which was a great feeling. I love this painting, I hope you enjoy my post. 

First I started with a quick block in of local color. Creating the form and composition of the creek, position of the trees and start with my base of purples and blues. As you can see from my snow scenes I really LOVE to use those purples...they give such a beautiful feel to the snow...

 Normally I would do an underpainting but this was my first time painting large on UArt paper and I was not sure how much tooth I would lose. I would under paint a small section a bit later...

Here I started to really form the snow...build up those colors, try to create some motion in the terrain. I started to form the trees as well as give the creek a more defined shape and direction. I worked from top to bottom and tried to stay away from the creek at this time. I also started to add some of the brush in the background...just to see where I could start adding some of the sunlight.

Here's a bit of a jump in the progress of this painting...As you can see I've added some more trees to the top and continued to layer on the colors. I've begun to create the form in the snow and give the terrain more warm and cool highlights. The trees were given more form as I began to bring the warm sun through the trees. I had to start the warm color now before I started to fill the background with the forest.

I also began to come in with some really cool blue greens to give a nice cool reflective sheen to the snow.

Here is where I added some alcohol to my creek to really dig the pastel in the tooth and give it a really dark base that the creek really needed. 

In this step I carried the form of the terrain across the top in the background and kept coming with the warm color reflecting off the snow. I gave the section on the right some shape and also added in the trunk to the main small tree to position where my trees will go. I started adding some color to the water and more shape to the snow where it meets the creek.

Here is the finished painting and another bit of a jump. Sorry with a painting this large, I have about 100 photos at different stages.

I've really layered in the trees in the background...giving them tons of color and creating the depth needed to bring this painting to life. I added some snow creeping up the trees and some really strong highlights in the background.

The water is flowing with lots of color and beautiful cool icy highlights...I really wanted you to feel like you were in the cold at this location.

I added the small flock of tiny trees on the right...essential for creating the perspective of the creek going off in the background. The curve of the branches really give it life.

I've also added my signature "rock" in the foreground on the left. I try to fit that rock into every snow scene I paint.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed my post.

-Jeff