A Snowy Night

Canvas work is something that has been at the forefront of my mind for some time. Both in terms of business, creating and promoting my range but also from a personal point of view

It’s not something I have ever felt comfortable to step into. Me, create a piece of art? Use paints and brushes and actually have a recognisable piece of art at the end of it? No I couldn’t possibly do that.

Today however saw me step out of my comfort zone and actually put paint on canvas and bring to life some silver birch trees . I’ve detailed below what I did, why don’t you have a go?

For my first project, I didn’t want to start too big. So I started with a A4 canvas board. Using a yellow acrylic mixed with some white to replicate the gentle moonlight, I literally used circular motions to create a circle to represent the moon in the far right corner. Using blue acrylic, yellow and white I mixed a green/blue shade and worked outwards, blending as I went, adding more blue to create darker shades as I reached the edges of the page. As if the sky would if you looked away from the moon.

I worked over the colours until I was happy with the blending. I added a touch more white to the very top right corner to make it light as it was ‘closer’ to the moon.

I then dried the paint with a standard hairdryer so that I didn’t have to wait to be able to do the next part! Yes, I really did.

I started the trees by giving them a thicker base and working up off the top of the canvas. Bending them slightly as I went as no tree goes straight up or down, we need to try and at least make them realistic. An odd number of trees also looks better than an even number for some reason. My husband often says the same when plating up food, that 3 pieces of meat placed on the plate look better than 4… Uneven numbers over even.

Next, I worked on the branches, adding them sporadically and funnelling down into twigs. I need to work on my thickness, or better yet get a better detailing brush as I personally think my branches are slightly too thick. Nice thinner twigs would have looked a lot better here, so invest in a decent detailing brush.

They don’t currently look much like silver birch trees (as they aren’t silver) but trust me they will. We need to add in some of that distinctive look that makes a silver birch tree what it is.

Using a dry flat brush and some white acrylic paint I worked down the edge of the tree from the outside in, not symmetrical all the way and not all the way across the tree, giving it the white shading that you can see, appropriate to where the moon is situated.

I really enjoyed doing this as it brought the trees to life and gave them some dimension, which before they just didn’t have.

It’s still not quite right though, if you’ve studied a birch tree you’ll see that there is black detailing in the bark working it’s way up to the top of the tree.

Using a detailing brush I have added in that distinctive look of the birches bark. The black decoration that dresses the bark of the tree getting sparser as you work your way up the tree.

Lastly, for effect as it is a snowy night, I have just used the splatter technique by using watery white acrylic and splatting ‘snow’ over the painting. Get messy.

That’s it, Voila. We have our snowy night.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running! Thank you for your support!