Snow Shadows (and Violet-Yellow Mixes)

 

12/27/21 Maple Leaf neighborhood, 8:30 a.m., 15 F degrees

In addition to falling snow, another thing I rarely have opportunities to practice are those lovely cool-blue shadows on snow-covered surfaces that Shari Blaukopf captures so beautifully. Our snow days are rare enough, but sunny snow days are rarer still.

After breakfast on our second snow day, I saw a spot of early light on the yellow house across the street (the same one I sketched from upstairs on Christmas Eve; this time I had to cram myself into a corner next to our Christmas tree, which is blocking most of the front window). I knew I had only a few minutes to catch it, so I grabbed a convenient Caran d’Ache Night Blue for the shadows. As soon as I started applying yellow to the house, I remembered that the shadows would now appear green – bad choice. You’d think with all my recent color-temperature studies that I would have remembered some of my purple/yellow mixes that would make a much more neutral shadow blend. I saved the green from happening by leaving the pencils dry where the yellow and blue mixed and then deepened the shadows with Payne’s Grey, but now I’m working out some better mixes (see end of post).

In the early afternoon the same day, I gave the shadows another shot, this time with Greg’s car parked out front (which hadn’t budged since Christmas Eve). I tried Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Delft Blue (141), which is a cool blue-violet. If I get the right sunny view again, I’ll try mixing it with yellow.

12/27/21 1:30 p.m., 23 F degrees

Here are some violet/yellow mixes I tried from a few watercolor pencils at hand. I prefer the cooler violets (checkmarked). The yellow is Museum Aquarelle Yellow (10) in all cases.

Here’s something strange about Caran d’Ache: Look how different Supracolor Violet and Museum Aquarelle Violet are (both 120)! Supracolor Cobalt Violet (620) looks closer to MA Violet (120) than Supracolor Violet (120) does. Supracolor 620 looked so weak mixed with yellow that I mixed it a second time (at left) using more Cobalt Violet. It was still fairly weak. If I use this, I have to go easy on the yellow.