February 12 Workings on 'The Hill in Winter'

I first tackled removing the hint of black post extending into the sky from the original charcoal sketch. That was a chore! I tried pipe insulation, paper towel, two different kinds of eraser until I finally pulled out the electric eraser. Finally.

Then I had to repair the sky, and in doing so, I added more lighter clouds and brightness along the horizon. I worked downward sharpening the mountain line and adding more blue and light color used in the sky with a very gentle touch. Now I’m thinking it needs to be more of a navy blue.

Moving farther down, I worked the trees with some black, some dark green, and some mid-tone green. I used a reddish brown for bare deciduous trees and for touches in the background. The same light blue used in sky and mountains was also laid down along the hill of snow.

I defined clearer upper contours in the hill, made the stone wall (and added the foreground bigger stone wall.) I put in background green foliage and red brown grasses and saplings and threw some texture in the foreground trees to give reference to the composition. (I know, the branches of those foreground trees are not right … yet.)

I was hesitant to tackle the birch trees, but finally went at it with CarboOthello pencils. I was interrupted before I could do more. It was time to quit anyway as my legs and feet were aching. 

Progress made. No complaints – although as I edited the progress photo, I made notes on what to “fix” next time I get in the studio.