Winter Tree Silhouettes

These winter tree silhouettes are unusual in that we used "warm" instead of "cool" colors to create them. 

Why did we do that??? 









Consider that snow reflects the colors of the sky, which is usually blue. However, as in this photo, we painted the "golden hour," when the ambient light takes on gold, orange, pink, lavender, and other warm or warm-ish colors. These sunrise or sunset colors are reflected in the snow.



 

We started by painting the sky area with clear water, for a wet-in-wet technique. Then, using liquid watercolors, we added our sunset beginning with yellow at the horizon line and allowed the colors to bleed and blend. 




We painted additional lines in the midground and thicker lines and shapes in the foreground to indicate hills and snowdrifts, adding pan watercolors if desired. Then we allowed our paintings to dry. 

Now it was time to add our details, which would be silhouettes. We needed to mix a good solid black, like ink, to create these shapes. 


We outlined our horizon and added the trees in the distance. We also added an old fence in the foreground and long grasses along the fence posts.

We then painted our tree silhouettes, first starting with a vertical line, then 
adding branches. We filled them in, thickening the tree trunk, and adding additional branches an twigs to finish our trees. Then we added more grass, shadows, and some birds flying in the distance.

Our artists were ages 7 to 16.  Thanks to Deep Space Sparkle for this beautiful winter art project idea!