A Winter’s Fire

Every winter when the world goes dark,
All we need is a little spark.
From a fire burning steady hot,
I watch it from my favorite spot.

After making countless amounts of fires this winter, it continues to amaze me. There is just something so mesmerizing about a flickering flame. It’s effects relaxes me in a trance-like way. I’m no pyromaniac, but a pleasant controlled fire will probably always be something I’ll cherish.

Now a bit about the painting and the process; I started with some A4 watercolor paper. Hotpressed for a smoother result. In the beginning I chose to mainly focus on the firewood and the rocks around the bonfire. Slowly layer by layer, the piece was building up. It’s usually always hard at the start of a project, but it’s important to just trust the process.

The very first few layers.

As I proceed to add more and stronger colors, there is a lot to keep in mind; mixing of colors, the thickness of the paint, negative spaces, how the paint lightens when it dries, drying time, other methods for drying – a hairdryer, not over-working the paper and so much more.

Darkening the background.

If you want to work with watercolors you have to be prepared for a long and slow process. Not letting the different layers completely dry or throwing on too much color can completely ruin the painting. Of course a lot of mistakes can be saved with several helpful techniques, but avoiding them in the first place is always ideal.

The finished framed piece.

I added a larger black frame with some white space to enhance the artwork. The contrast between light and dark does a very good job at just that.

It was my first time proceeding to paint a fire. As much as a challenge that it was, I definitely also learnt a good amount of new things. Especially when it comes to creating something this dark in watercolors. Now I’m just looking forward to the next one!

The rain

It’s been raining here a lot the past few days. It’s the perfect opportunity to sit inside and make art. I love to draw, but I want to improve my painting skills too. I’ve been watching a lot of tutorials on YouTube and tried researching different techniques. I find painting a lot more challenging and time consuming than drawing. I think that has to do with what I’m used to and not.

I wanted to keep this painting a bit dark and cold. I’m happy with how the different layers turned out. Something I think could be improved is the white highlights on the leaves. Next time I’ll use an even smaller linear brush. Other than that I’m happy with it and I’ll keep painting.