We used a brush to start painting the trees. We used straws to blow the paint to make many smaller branches. Some trees will start near the bottom of the page and go off the page at the top of the paper. Trees will be placed at various levels on the page to make some trees look closer and some further away. I demonstrate to the students how to add water to the black paint to make a wide range of values. The trees closer to the viewer are darker in value and have more contrast. As the trees get further away they are lighter in value and diminish in contrast. This creates the sense of atmospheric perspective, like you would see in a snow storm. We also observed this phenomenon by looking out the window on this kind of day and from photographs I took in the snow. After the trees were finished the sky color is put on with a light transparent wash of color. To finish the painting, we used thick white tempera to put the snow that has fallen on top of the branches. The painting is then put in a large box where it can be flicked with white paint that will look like falling snow.

Students should achieve depth in their paintings through atmospheric perspective and placement. Trees appear lighter in value as they get further away and are placed higher on the page.

Some of terms students learned during this experience are: atmosheric perspective, value, space, placement on the page, transparent, opaque, water color wash, landscape, and contrast.