The Companion

I've started on the companion piece that will go along with my other maple leaf painting. I'm going to let the background dry so the colors stay pure and I can add a bit more detail.

Winter Night

I've been itching to do a black canvas again, so here we go.

There are several things I liked about this painting. The shading in the sky comes accross quite nice. I like how I did the moon. My favorite thing about it however is I did the stars originally with acrylic after applying black gesso to make the canvas black. I let that dry completely then applied a glaze of pthalo and ultramarine blue. Thus turning the stars blue. I then did the moon/shading in the sky and finally I flicked white stars ontop of it all. It's subtle, and you can't tell from the picture. But when you view it it really gives the sky a new dimension with some stars shining brighter than others. I kept the contrast towards the outer edges as thats where its the darkest and you'd see them more. I also liked the closest tree, and I'm a bit happier with the way my evergreens are coming out. The mountains were alright, I like doing them with the filbert brush.

After this I decided to add some finishing touches. You can really see how things mellowed out after drying.