How to paint a winter landscape with oil?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

As soon as the earth is covered with snow, every person who loves winter has a holiday in his soul. So why not try painting a winter landscape in oil on your own? As soon as you start painting, the frozen winter landscapes will seem so picturesque to you that you will immediately want to reproduce them on canvas. In this article, we will analyze the basics of writing oil paintings, and also, be sure of this, we will learn the basics of drawing paintings that depict snowy winter landscapes. Oil paintings of winter landscapes by Russian artists are admired by the whole world, because the Slavic winter is really the most beautiful!

Preparation and materials

What do we need to know to paint a beautiful winter landscape in oil? Snowy winter landscapes, oil paintings for inspiration, and your desire to create something wonderful is pretty much all you'll need. You can paint with bristle brushes or palette knives using thinneror working without it, mixing paints with linseed oil, which helps to create a special structure in the finished work. In order for the picture of the winter landscape to turn out really impressive, it is advised to use palette knives of different sizes when registering, a canvas measuring about 30 by 40 centimeters on a stretcher, as well as oil paints and napkins with which you will wipe the palette knives while working on your creation.

Provide yourself with an apron that you don't mind ruining with oil paints, and be sure to cover the place where you will work on the picture with transparent oilcloth or an unnecessary sheet. No matter how beautiful the picture would turn out in the future, it will not be very pleasant for you to wash your apartment and yourself later from paint, which, by the way, can ruin the carpet on the floor or your favorite sweater.

What's first?

When painting a winter landscape in oils, you should know that the canvas must first be painted in a neutral color, for example, with a liquid primer mixture using a wide brush. After an hour of drying of the primer, you can start drawing a sketch, while not forgetting about the composition of the future picture. Wait until the canvas is completely dry and sketch with a soft pencil, such as 2B or 3B. Snowy winter oil painting landscapes have always fascinated the beholder.

Draw the sketch carefully, being careful not to put too much pressure on the canvas. The pencil will be covered with oil paints, but such accuracy is necessary in order toso that you get used to the composition and can immediately think about what and in what color you will write. Having finished a rough sketch of a future painting, proceed to the preparation of paints.

Time to paint

For a winter landscape, oils must first be mixed and kneaded on a palette with linseed oil to achieve a consistency that will help the painting to be effective. The rest of the paints do not need to be mixed with oil, because when working you will mix bright colors with white, and linseed oil is already present in them.

The sky appears first in any painting. In winter, especially on cloudy days, it is rather pale, so after you mix the blue with white, you need to paint over the entire space allotted for it with a palette knife. Closer to the horizon line, for a realistic picture, you need to add blue, closer to the border of the picture - grayish or white. You can add some white strokes to make clouds.

And after the sky - snow

After you have painted the sky in the picture, proceed to the rest of the big spots - snow on the slopes, a lake, a winter forest. In order to achieve a realistic effect, add blue, brown paint to the snow, gently kneading it on a palette with white. Paint strokes horizontally, slanting them slightly where there are smooth ascents or descents on the terrain.

Carefully inspect what you get - there should not be a single unpainted speck of the canvas!It's best to notice the gaps at this stage, because it will be more difficult to remove them later, as you will move on to adding small details that complete the winter landscape.

Don't forget the details

Since you have decided to paint a winter snowy landscape in oil, try to achieve maximum realism. That is why, if you have a lake or any other body of water at work, do not forget about the reflections in the water. They are usually slightly distorted, the colors are not transmitted as brightly as on real objects. Do not forget about the islands of snow that lie on the frozen surface of a river or lake, paint them with brown paint, well diluted with white.

Trees and bushes, written in broad strokes, need detailing in order to get the most realistic look. To do this, use a thin brush or the edge of a palette knife.

Last strokes

When you finish painting the winter landscape in oil, scatter snow over most of the objects you have depicted. For example, on the roof of a house, the tops and branches of trees, a boat moored near the shore. With white and a bristle brush, create the effect of freshly fallen snow by mixing a little blue paint into the white. The movements should be light and accurate, as the picture is almost ready, and you, of course, would not want to spoil it with one wrong stroke.

Leave the finished painting in a dry, ventilated area, allowing it to dry, and the smell of oil paints to disappear. Only after your winter landscape is completely oileddry, you can take care of the place where it will be. Decorate the picture in a beautiful frame, for example, white with gilding, with carved patterns and scuffs. You can leave the canvas unframed as it will give the impression of an unfinished painting, but take care of the side edges of the canvas: paint over them with streaks of paint that seem to have accidentally spilled over the edges of the picture.