Oil Paint Sticks

My Alta artwork was guided by a photo I took at this ski mountain in Utah last winter. I chose this photo because I loved the contrast of colors between the bright blue sky and the black, grey, and white mountains, clouds, and trees. I also thought it would be fun to use the oil paint sticks to create the puffy clouds. This material would also be a good medium for creating texture in the mountains and trees by building layers with oil paint. 

I used oil paint sticks which was a new art medium for me. I enjoyed exploring this new material and making art with it. I was able to create a lot of texture with the oil sticks by layering them up. I also used my hands to help blend the colors and details in the piece. For the mountains, I used a palette knife to lather the oil paint onto the mountains and form a more rugged texture. 

I began by choosing the image on which to base my artwork. I then roughly scribbled an outline of the sky and mountains to get my plan down. I liked this image because of the placement of clouds and the ratio of sky to mountains. I made sure to draw the sky a deep blue so the clouds and mountains contrasted and popped out. I also liked having the potential for intricate detail with the trees. The dark trees and their density of them also created more contrast and added more depth to the piece.