Watercoloring a Salted Forest

 This week it's my turn to pick the learning video for the watercolor challenge at Splitcoaststampers. And I have chosen this one from Kristin Van Leuven. This video is 25 minutes long and the beginning of it talks about how to do salted backgrounds and things to try. ( less water, more water, more pigments etc) I have read in the past that this is something some people struggle with so, I thought this was cool that she shows how it works before showing the painting jump start idea. 

So, I did do the top two thirds of this (just slightly under A7 size) piece of Cold Press Arches cotton watercolor paper. I did use Daniel Smith paints and table salt as that was what I had handy.

When it was dry and the salt was removed there was not nearly the definition for the trees as in the learning video and If I were doing it again I would use more pigments to the paint and try the rock salt. But, I decided to just use it as it was.

Started adding some branches and tree trunks to the scene.

More branches added and a few shadows to the area that would be bushes.

Added in a few rocks and some water/ice covered pond to the bottom.

I added some soil, more shadows.

More shadows and some fir / pine trees to the edges of the scene.

I actually picked up a new tube of Windsor & Newton White Gouache and so, I did apply the "snow" here with using the brush directly in the tube. I am not so sure it made much of a difference and I eventually added some to the palette where I normally have that color. I added a few more shadows to the fir trees also.

This was finished with a grey/blue-ish piece of smooth cardstock ( that started out at 12" square but, I don't remember its color name or MFG info anymore) The thing I really notice about this is how much the camera shots differ in color from the cell phone shots. Also, I think my snow was more visible while it was wet than now while it's dry so, I am debating adding more snow to the tops of the first layer of it here. And I decided the happy birthday will go on the inside. That's about it from me, If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.