Making "Winter Wonderland"

For the trees, I developed a three-layer approach that creates depth without overwhelming detail.

The background trees are the simplest—just silhouettes in a blue-gray tone. The middle layer gets a bit more definition: individual branches visible but still quite impressionistic. Only the foreground trees have detailed texture.

The snow was the most technically challenging part. I wanted it to look soft and freshly fallen, not like a flat white surface. The solution was to use a combination of white gouache and careful negative space.

I built up the snow in thin layers, letting each dry completely before adding the next. The shadows are a very diluted blue-violet rather than gray, which keeps them feeling cold but luminous.

The final touch was the warm light spilling from the cabin windows—just a small amount of yellow-orange that pulls your eye to the heart of the image.