Acrylic Class Project: 3 Poppies Week 3

This week what we did in class was to add another layer of color to our puppies to help bring up their color and create some of the detail. Because acrylics dry darker and they are a transparent medium it is sometimes necessary to add more than one layer of paint to create the desired effect that you want, these puppies are a bright color so they may need at least two if not three layers of paint.

I also painted out part of the background that I thought had too much green in it on the left hand side between the middle poppy and the poppy on the left, I had brought the green background up too far and I wanted to put some of the blue sky back behind these orange flowers so that I could use the complementary colors of blue and orange to best effect.

One of the beauties of acrylic painting is that you can paint right over something whereas, in another medium you would either not be able to do it easily or would have to scrape off paint but with acrylic we can just paint over it, however, when you are painting out an area you want to make it looks like the surrounding area and not a big patch that you put on your painting. You don't have to match the colors exactly what you do have to do is to blend them in with the colors that are around them, for instance, this blue sky I didn't just paint out the area of green that I wanted to get rid of, I painted that area and then I lightly used my brush in a dry brush technique and blended the blue sky back into the rest of the blue sky so that it matched the color. I also had a patch that was too light on the other side in the sky so using blue with a touch of white in it, I was able to bring down the value of that patch of white but I remembered to blend those colors into the surrounding area so they look like they belong. Fixing something is not hard you just have to keep in mind that you need to make it look like it fits where are you are working.

The other thing that I did was I put in the under painting for the stems there is still some work to be done on them. I used my Hooker’s green with a little touch of orange to grey the green and a little touch of yellow to lighten the color, I painted in the stems also I added touches of ultramarine blue where there are shadows to start the shading process. Learning to work wet into wet is a lot of fun and it can create some very soft blended shades as you are painting.

Because people were at varying stages of this painting I did not do much else. I do hope that you can get your own paintings caught up to this stage so that we can possibly finish the project in the coming class. Start looking around for something that you want to paint for the rest of the semester and I will help you get started and to do demos as needed to help you along so keep painting and I will see you in class.

SPRING 2016 ACRYLIC CLASS WEEK2

ACRYLIC CLASS Project: 3 Poppies

You should have your canvas covered with your background and you should also have sketched your design onto your canvas using either chalk or charcoal. This needs to be done before you can start work on the poppies.

You will need your flat sable brush a #6, #8 or #10 depending on the size of your canvas, you don’t want to work with a brush that is too small because in a case like this it is better to work wet into wet which means working faster by using a bigger brush, with practice you will understand the necessity of the bigger brush. I was using my #10 flat sable brush.

The colors you will need for the poppies will be cad yellow light, cad orange, napthal or cad red and your gesso. The reason we need the gesso is it is an opaque color whereas titanium is more transparent, we need the opaque quality of gesso.

I started out mixing a good sized pile of a mix of orange and yellow with a bit of gesso to help the other colors cover just be careful not to add too much gesso because you want this as a rich golden orange color not a murky weak orange color if you use too much gesso. To this golden color you can add more yellow and touches of gesso for a lighter color, or add more orange and red for the richer deeper colors. We will not use any of the cool colors to deepen the values on the flowers so we can keep the colors clean and not muddy.

A reminder to all: Acrylics dry darker, that is just their nature and they are also a transparent medium so do not be discouraged when you come back and see that your flowers seemed to have changed color and value even with the gesso, we will need to go over the flowers again to brighten the colors and that added layer will cover any thin spots where the background may show through.

Before you start painting, have your reference photo in front of you where you can see it not in your bag and don’t leave it at home. This is your road map and it has all the information you need to paint the project so put it where you can see it.

It does not matter on which flower your start, just look at the reference photo and pick a spot. If you start say on the middle flower with that brightest part of the petal, you will use yellow and gesso then add some of the orange color you mixed earlier to turn it into a soft golden yellow starting at the edge of the petal and as you work your way across the petal add more of the golden orange and blend them together as you go. You can also add touches of orange and red if you see the areas is darker just blend them wet into wet as you go. Whenever you are painting an object, especially flowers, you want to follow the natural curves of the object you are painting. Flowers, particularly poppies, have a specific growth with veins or wrinkles like the poppies. Also note that the outside edges of the petals are not smooth but undulate so use the corner of your brush to create some movement of the outside edges.

You will probably have to repeat this process again once the paint has dried, the method is the same, just follow what you have there already, This is still under painting in that you are trying to get the canvas covered, yellow and orange are two of the most transparent colors in acrylics, there is just no way around a second coat or two, even adding gesso which will make your color too murky. You can see the difference between one and two coats of color where I stopped in our last class, the flower on the right and the front petals of the center flower have 2 coats, the back petals and the flower on the left only have one.

Try to get your paintings to this point and we will continue in our next class. See you then.

Spring 2016 Lerri's Acrylic Class

Spring 2016 Acrylic Class: Project – 3 Poppies

I am working on a 12 x 24” canvas in the landscape position (horizontal), however, if you do not have a 12 x 24 or cannot find one it is not necessary that you use one, it is only an option.

Also, I had toned my canvas before I started working on it using gesso, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, again not necessary but it will give you the opportunity to practice using your blending brush to create soft out-of-focus patches of color and also to learn to work quickly.

Looking at the reference photo, I wanted to change the background to something better than dirt, so I will be adding some sky to the top, the blue will go well with the orange poppies because they are compliments, the sky will softly blend in with some suggestions of some background flowers and bushes, this will be my background and it needs to get in before we start working on the poppies themselves.

First thing you want to do is to have everything ready. Have all your paints out, and I do mean all of them because you don’t know which ones you will need so have them all out, and your gesso. Have your mister bottle handy plus have your soft blending brush ready to go, and paper towels in hand, you need to work quick because this is wet into wet painting and you don’t have the time to go looking for something if you didn’t put it out.

Before I started to paint, I lightly spritzed my canvas with my mister bottle so there was a light coating of water on your canvas. This will help the paint go on smoothly and will help keep it moist as you blend. Starting across the top using a big bristle brush – I was using my #12 flat bristle brush, you use the biggest one you have – I alternated between my gesso, the ultramarine blue, touches of purple and even some touches of burnt sienna and quickly scrubbed these colors across the top of my canvas to about a third of the way down where I switched to sap green, yellow, gesso, touches of burnt sienna again scrubbing and patting these colors on quickly. This green should be a soft grey green in the background.

Do not waste time on this step because your paint needs to be wet for this next step, if it isn’t the blending will not work. Keep your mister handy. Using you blending brush, be sure that it is very dry and clean, start up at the top of your canvas and use long, very light, flat “x” strokes to blend the sky together. If it feels like the brush is dragging too much LIGHTLY spritz your canvas with water, then quickly blend in the water as you soften the sky across your canvas. Then work down your canvas to the green area. Wipe your brush out and gently blend the blue and green areas together, it should look soft and fuzzy where they meet.

If you want at this point you can add little spots or shapes of orange to SUGGEST poppies in the background before you finish blending the green area. Remember all of this is supposed to still be wet so don’t doddle  be quick, don’t try to create the perfect poppies in the background they are too far away and too out of focus to worry about, then blend them along with the green so it all looks soft and out of focus.

As you work to the bottom of your canvas start adding darker colors like Hooker’s green, blue, touches of purple and sienna to create a darker green. You can do this with your bristle brush or the blending brush and just remember to softly blend as you go.

If your paint starts to feel sticky and isn’t blending like it should, lightly spray the area but be sure that you blend all the water in or it will leave spots though in this painting those spots may look like flowers so don’t worry too much about them if you see them later.

Once this is dry, you will need to assess your background. Acrylics always dry darker, as did mine, so you may need to go in and do some adjusting of the color before you add the poppies.

I took my #12 flat bristle again, use the largest brush you have it makes it go faster, and on my palette I mixed some sap green, gesso, a little burnt sienna a little yellow…I was looking for a soft, greyed, yellow green for the background that was a bit lighter than what was there. I loaded my brush with this color, then using the broad flat side of the brush almost parallel with the canvas, I patted the color on then pushed up quickly working across my canvas. I also added some more orange as I went to add more of a suggestion of flowers but as they were blended in, the orange became a softer color. If some of the previous color shows through that is okay, it becomes texture and shadows, don’t try to cover it all up.

I was working quickly so it was still a wet into wet technique and I also lightly blended the top edges with my blending brush, just be sure it is clean and dry before using it.

As you work into the foreground (bottom of the canvas) again, add blue, Hooker’s, purple and sienna to create a dark foreground using that patting and push motion. You do not need to blend this area, you can leave some of the texture from your brush strokes. Also you can add blots of orange to suggest other poppies, just be sure you blend some of them in to soften the color and the shapes.

When this is dry you can sketch your poppy design on your canvas be sure you are using either soft vine charcoal or chalk to sketch with. Try to get you painting to this point, keep painting and I will see you in class.

Winter 2016 Acrylic Class Week 5

Winter Acrylic Class Project: Cozy Cottage Week 5

This week we worked on finishing up the house and starting the highlighting on the snow.

You will be able to continue to paint while areas are drying if you remember to move around your painting. I started with the house by adding some detail to the thatch of the roof, stones or whatever you want your hose to be made of, detailed out the chimney and added some smoke, then I came back in a started the highlighting of the snow on the cottage. While things were drying on the house so I could work on it some more, I started to highlight the snow.

One thing you all need to understand is none of this is instant. If you want your painting to look the way you see it in your mind’s eye, you are going to need to do layers of color from dark to light to give it shape and form, there are no shortcuts if you want it done correctly which means you need to be patient with the process and follow the steps. There will be several steps to the highlighting of the snow to get the brightest highlights in, partly because acrylics dry darker but also it gives more depth and texture to your snow if each time you leave a bit of what you did before as the shadows and forms in your snow, please, please, please(!) do NOT cover it all up with white all of these layers are important.

The thatching on the roof needs some brighter highlights and while they are near yellow in color, the yellow by itself is too bright so mix your yellow with a touch of burnt sienna and white to mare a golden color, then using the dry brush technique, and a flat bristle brush, follow the angle of the roof and brighten the thatch in the sunlit areas (see photo). Add a touch more sienna to this color – it should still be a warm golden color – and tape in some shapes onto the walls of your house on the sunny sides. You can also use this on the front of the chimney. Remember, these are stones in all shapes and sizes so just suggest these stones and let your under painting become the mortar between the stones.

On the shadowed sides of the roof, you can add more sienna to that color if you still have some along with a touch of orange and any mud (grey) you might have on your palette tiny touch of blue if you don’t, this color should be lighter than what you have on your roof already if not lighten with either more orange or white but add small amounts to adjust the value. Dry brush this color into the shadowed sides of the roof then add a touch of purple and white to create a shadow color for the shadowed sides of the house. Add the stones into the shadowed side the same as the sunny side.

While that was drying, I mixed up a light blue color to start the highlighting of the roof of the house by starting with the tinted white I had mixed up previously (gesso or white with a teeny, tiny touch of orange just to tint it) and to that I added a little blue. This combination makes a soft bluish grey color that should be lighter than the under painted snow I have on the roof already.

Still using my #4 flat bristle brush and looking at the reference photo – which you should all have right in front of you BTW – I started adding some shape and intermediate highlights to the roof’s snow. Again, I am not trying to cover up all of the under painting, I am trying to add form to the flat color that is there.

You can use this same color to add some more intermediate highlights around the front of the house, on the snow around the sides of the house and the top of the wood pile if you put it in. As always, watch your angles and THINK about what you are doing and WHY. Snow covers everything, it drifts up over things and forms lumps and bumps along the way so keep this in mind as you paint.

Once your house and roof are dry, you can add a bit of detail if you want. If you want smoke coming out of the chimney, take the tinted white or even some gesso, tap it around the top of the chimney, then with your finger just smudge it up and let it fad to nothing, that’s all there is to it. If you want to put in windows you need to mix a dark color (blue, purple, sienna and or Hooker’s green to make a dark color) and paint in the windows and door, you can also use this color for the shadows up under the eaves of the roof. When this is dry you can add snow piles to the windows if you want. Details are up to you.

The next thing you need to do is start highlighting the rest of the snow, this won’t be the final highlights those will come when everything is in and you are doing the final touches but these do set the stage for the final highlights. As I have said many times before, if you want to be a fine art painter you cannot skip steps. You cannot go straight from A to Z without the rest of the alphabet. Just because this is white (we will actually be using the tinted white with orange), when it dries it will be darker just because of the nature of acrylics but it is going to add so much to your painting, you don’t want to skip it.

Still using my #4 flat bristle, and I am using the bristle brush because I am going to be scrubbing this color on which is very hard on the brush, I will be using the tinted white (gesso with a tiny touch of orange) and using the dry brush technique and the small side of my brush, I will be scrubbing this color onto my snow where I think the light will be hitting.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!! Look at the photos. Some of that cooler shading I did earlier is not going to get much if any of this warmer color because the area is in the shadows. This is where all that under painting starts to shine. As you add the highlight colors, you will see depth and dimension start to pop in your painting DO NOT COVER IT ALL UP!

Also, THINK about what you are painting and where you are painting. Remember that the snow is lumpy so don’t cover over everything that is to be highlighted. Use the highlights to shape the ruts of your road better and to highlights the drifts of snow on the house and around the trees and fence posts. You are going to need to look at the photos and really see what is going on BEFORE you start painting it. Do the best you can but please take your time to do it right the first time because it will save you time in the long run.

So keep painting and I will see you in class.

Winter 2016 Acrylic Class

WINTER 2016 ACRYLIC CLASS Project: Cozy Cottage Week 4

This last class we worked on putting in some intermediate highlights, the snow on the cottage and basing in out wood pile and the fence in front. We only have a couple of weeks left in the semester so you need to get caught up to this point, I do want to finish it before the last class.

Starting with the cottage roof, we need to do a couple of things, one is to add some straw to the roof and some snow. It might be easier for you to add some detail to the straw before adding the snow just know that all's not lost if you do it the other way around, you will just need to be more careful.

The thatching on the roof needs to show some highlights and also some shadows this will be anintermediate highlight using yellow with a touch of burnt sienna and a touch of white for the sunny side, it should be lighter that what is already there. The shadowed sides of the roof use the same color but add a touch of blue to cool the color, depending on how dark you made your original shadows this color could be darker or it may be lighter which is okay, you are just adding some texture to the roof at this point.

Use a flat bristle brush that is not too big for the area but you also don’t want it too small, I was using my #4 however, if you are working on a smaller canvas or your house is smaller you may want to use a #2 flat bristle. This is a dry brush technique so watch the water in your paint – it should be like soft butter – and also in your brush, dry it out before you pick up paint and squeeze the back end of the brush with your paper towel to get out extra moisture, you might also want to spread the bristles and wipe out excess paint before starting.

Before you start to paint stop and think about what you are painting and LOOK at the reference photo. The roof is at an angle, you strokes need to be at the angle of the roof, when you pull down your stroke should look scratchy, you want to see the under painting because this creates texture, that under painting becomes shadows, don’t lose it. Practice before you start on your painting.

I also added the chimney to the roof using burnt sienna; a touch of orange for the sun lit side and added a bit of blue to the color for the shadowed side.

While your roof is drying you can start on the intermediate highlights of the snow. These highlights are not the brightest highlights but they do give depth and texture to your snow as well as shape so they are important. Mix up a cool color starting with your ultramarine blue and purple then add enough white to it to make it one or 2 values lighter than what you have from last week and even a touch of burnt sienna to grey the color slightly. Remember that this is a cool color, if it looks too warm or too brown you will need to add more blue, the sienna should just grey the color slightly.

I know I say this a lot, but look at your reference photo BEFORE you start painting and think about WHAT you are painting and HOW you are going to paint it. Think of the SHAPE you need to paint and the direction it needs to go in, when you paint just blindly you are not going to get the results you want. When I am painting whether it is a demo or a personal painting, I am constantly doing all of the above, that reference photo is my roadmap to my goal and if I don’t follow it I will end up doing it over. There is a lot of thought process going on with each stroke and when you are new to painting that process will take a bit longer but it is essential to your finished painting.

 

Where the snow drifts up the house your strokes need to follow that drift. When they are creating lumps and bumps in the road they are curves long and short, up and down. They follow the curves of the hillsides leading up to the house, look at the ruts in the road and how the snow sinks in and where it doesn’t, see this before you paint.

You can also use this color to under paint the snow on your trees – the pines behind the house and in the crooks of the leafless trees on the side and the snow patches if your roof is dry. You always need to do a darker under painting no matter what you are painting because this becomes shadows and texture.

While this is drying you can sketch in the wood pile in the back near the house and the fence post in the front. Paint them in with a mix of siena with a touch of blue and purple and also a little white for the background wood pile and same mix without the white for the foreground fence post.

Lastly, when the snow was dry on the trees, I added some highlights. The sun is coming in from the left hand side of the painting so your highlights will be on the left of objects in your painting. Using a mix of white (I use my gesso) with a teeny, tiny touch of orange to slightly tint the white tap in this color in your trees leaving the cool color as shadows.

You can also use this color using a dry brush technique to add a highlight to the ground around the house. Again, do not cover up all the color that’s there because that will be your texture and shadows.

I hope that you have your paintings up to this point because we have a lot of ground to cover before the semester ends. Keep painting and I will see you all in class.

Winter 2016 Acrylic Class

WINTER 2016 ACRYLIC CLASS PROJECT: Cozy Cottage Week 3

This week we finished getting our underpainting in and putting in our reflection, this is an important step as we progressed through this painting.

While I under painted the snow first, it is probably better practice to put in the reflection first, that way you can size it with the underpainting for the snow and reshape it if you have to. I am going to have to reshape my reflection a little bit next time we meet, but either way it is fine.

The underpainting for my snow is a mix of my ultramarine blue, my purple and white to change the value if you have a little mud on your brush or on your palate you can use that to grey the color just slightly or add just a tiny bit of burnt sienna so that it is not so brilliant, more of a blue gray.

Using my number 6 flat bristle brush, I started around the house with this blue/purple color, this is the underpainting for the snow. Where it might be in a more sunlit area add just a touch more white, if it is in a shadow area you can add a touch more blue to start the shaping process, it is important whenever you are painting white you need to under paint it in some form of blue or purple or a combination of the two or a soft, cool grey, white will not look white unless there are contrasting colors - darks and lights.

Remember whatever you are painting your brush strokes need to follow the shape of the thing that you are painting. When you are painting the drifts of snow up against the house be sure that you are using comma type stroke as the snow drifts up against the house and don't make the edges even, the snow doesn't come in and aligned perfectly all the way around the house it comes up in, piles up on top of things, you don't know what is around the bottom of the house that may be under the snow creating these different shapes. If you are trying to make a hillside or a larger drift of snow be sure that your strokes follow the shape of that drift, flat strokes will make it look flat so you need to have some curves strokes following the shape of what you are painting. This is especially true when it comes to putting in the ruts in the road the ruts are embedded into the snow so your strokes should be more like “U” shapes and as it comes up out of the rut it flattens out or slightly mound shaped to create that sense of it going from high to low.

The reflection is usually what causes beginners some problems because they try to create a mirror image and it's not exactly a mirror it is either frozen water or almost frozen water so the image is going to be distorted, plus there may be some distance between the water and

the object that is reflecting such as the cottage. Remember when you want to know what will be reflected into the water measured either with your fingers or the end of a brush, putting one point at the top and finding the bottom of the object with the other, then moving that top point down to the bottom and see where the bottom point shows up in the reflection and that will be the top point of the reflection (please see photograph).

Once you have determined what is going to show in the water you might want to lightly sketch it in with your chalk or charcoal do not try to make an exact copy of what is above and it might serve to make a rather fuzzy line when drawing in your cottage reflection.

Using similar colors to what you used for your cottage and using a bristle brush pull straight down you want this to be afuzzy reflection so you want to pull the strokes down no matter what the color or the shape is above, just pull color down with your brush to fill in the area. See photographs.

Be sure to also include the snow and you can use the color you used to under paint the snow just add a touch more white into it and pull it straight down it does not have to be exact. You are also going to be pulling down the colors from the sky which will be your alizarin crimson and white with a little touch of the cloud grey here and there pulling straight down and blending as you go. Don't worry if some of that paint gets into your cottage or vice a versa that will make it look more realistic. Try to work as fast as you can and while the paint is still wet, rinse your brush, and lightly pull across the reflection horizontally. The key word here is “lightly” you just want to disturb the downward stroke that you had just put in.

Please try to get as much of this under painted as you can, our time is growing short and we have a lot to do so you need to be at least to this point when we meet again. Until then, keep painting and I will see you in class.

Winter 2016 Acrylic Class

Winter 2016 Acrylic Class: Cozy Cottage Week 3

By this time you should all have the background of your painting in, that's the sky, the distant tree line in the back, and the closer forest of trees behind the cottage. This week we are going to be putting in the pine trees the deciduous trees and also base in our cottage.

If you need to do a light sketch so that you know where things are going to be when you put your pine trees in, the house sits on about the top third of the canvas and the front corner of it is about a third in from the right side. Remember, this cottage is in the distance so don't make it too big, just big enough to be inviting. Also don't be afraid to paint over the lines you sketched in they are just a suggestion of where the house is so you know where to put your trees if you need to make adjustments later you can.

First, I put in my pine trees with a mixture of Hookers green and ultramarine blue with a little touch of sienna in it to gray the color. You might also need a very little touch of white or any grey on your palette so that the green does not look black, it should not be the darkest color because of where it is in the painting.

I was using my number 6 flat bristle brush to create the pine trees, however, you can use a round brush or even a sable brush but any of them will require you to practice before you start on your painting. Using my flat bristle brush, when I loaded the paint onto the brush I drugged the brush through the paint on both sides this creates a fairly sharp edge at the end of the bristles. Using that sharp edge I created the top of the tree making a line by touching it to the canvas, after I came down about a half inch then using the corner of the brush, touching the canvas with the corner and making a quick flip of the brush, I started making the branches of my pine tree. This does take practice because if you stay on the canvas too long you will get a longer stroke so you have to learn how to lift as you flip to create the shorter branches, you also want to be sure that as you go down the tree you are creating an interesting shape and that you are bringing the branches in front of the tree as well as the sides, you don't want to have what looks like fish bones sticking up behind the house. Practice before you start on your painting.

Next using my liner brush I put in the two deciduous trees that are a little closer to the house. Again if you have never use the liner brush or are not comfortable with using your liner brush please practice this before you go to your painting a little bit of practice will go a long way.

As I stated last time, when we were putting in the forest of trees behind the house, loading the liner brush and learning how to push and lift it are critical to the success of this little brush. Remember that your paint should be like India ink it will run but it runs slowly and when you load your brush you want to really roll the bristles in the paint and as you lift off the palette, you roll it between your fingers to create a point, then practice your trees with a push, drag and slowly lift. Push, drag and lift. You can get some very fine lines with the liner brush if you practice. When you go in to make branches start in the tree trunk or in a fatter branch then push a little bit, start to drag and then lift and pull off in a different direction. This is a wonderful way to make trees and bushes but you do need to practice it so that you feel comfortable with the brush.

 

One thing I did do was mix up what will be part of my highlighting color for the snow and that was a good dollop of my gesso and a tiny touch of orange. You will be surprised at how strong the orange color is if you get too much of it you just want a little hint of color in the gesso, for the most part, I will be using this instead of pure white in most cases because white alone can look too  chalky.

Going back to my number 6 bristle brush and picking up some of that light orange/white color that I just mixed, using the dry brush technique I lightly glazed over the snow in the background behind where the house will be. I wanted it in between some of those trees in the background and around the trees that I just put in so I was using it on its small side and with kind of flat, banana-type strokes, put in little mounds of color to suggest the snow in the background. You want to see some of your under color because the underpainting that we did becomes shadows and texture from here out, we are not trying to cover it all up it is important to our painting so don't cover it entirely just glaze it on. Look at the photo from my work and you will see that you can see the gray underpainting underneath the white I put on.

Now you may want to sketch your cottage in a little better so that you know where you need to paint. Watch your perspective on this and watch that little side part of the house. there's a bigger main house and then a smaller room that juts out in front, they all have their own perspective to them so keep that in mind as you're sketching in.

We are going to under paint the house there is a sunny side (the front and tops of the building) since the Sun is coming in from the low left hand side of the painting. The front part of both of those buildings will be a softer warmer color and the sides will have a cool color. The warm color was made with burnt sienna, a bit of white and a little yellow and whatever mud is left on the brush. I painted this in in a scumbling motion (every which way), it doesn't need to be exact it can be a little bit off in its shape because this was a house made with stones and those stones are of different sizes and shapes. The front of the little building and then the front of the longer building are this color once you get those painted in, add a touch of purple and/or blue to the color and a little touch of white to create the shadow color for the building. Again, this doesn't have to be perfect because this was a hand built house with field stones.

The roof of the building is made of thatch and what that is, is long grass that they sewed on to the roof with wire or rope or heavy cord and it is in thick layers, when you are putting on your color for the roof you want to follow the angle of the roof as you are painting it. Don't worry about the snow right now just pretend it has no snow on it, that will come later, using the color you used for the house add in a little more white and touch of orange and yellow to it to warm it up a bit, use this color for the top of the longer house following the angle of the roof the top. The top and corners of the roof are not going to come to a sharp point because of the thatched roof, it will be rounded off as well as the corners at the bottom. When you are done with the sunlit part of the roof on the bigger house, add a little blue into your color for the shadowed side of the smaller house, again follow the angle of the roof as you put this color on your building.

This is where we left off so please try to get your painting to this point we have a lot to cover and we are reaching the halfway point to our semester and we have a lot to do so get ready to work be there on time and I will see you in class.