My Annual Snowman Painting and a Tip for Painting Snow

'Dashing Through the Snow'          9x12        pastel
available $150

 It's Snowman time! For the past few years I have painted a holiday snowman. It is always fun to create a new snow person and give him or her a personality. This year I decided to put my snowman in the middle of a fir tree forest. It began as a serene scene. A quiet winter day. I wanted to add some gently falling snow. Quiet and peaceful.

I found a new tool to make some snow! I usually just scrape a white pastel with a palette knofe to make some snow 'dust'. This time I use a small grating tool made by Derwent. It is intended to make liquid ink from their Inktense blocks. It made great pastel snow! A nice variety of sizes for bigger snowflakes!

To make the snow I took the grater top off the jar. I put my painting flat on the table and shaved the pastel right on top go the painting. I used a piece of glassine paper to press the snowy bits into the paper. But I had a slight mishap!

The glassine paper shifted while I was rubbing and the result were a couple of smooshed areas. At first I was mad at myself for not being more careful but then those areas started to grow on me. It looked like the wind was blowing the snow. So now my gentle day became a snowy day! 

close up of Mr. Snowman