Jon designing the drawing
I wanted to design this painting with a couple taking a walk through the park, this was to be painted with a limited palette and not too much detail. Here you can see the drawing completed, limited shapes were drawn as most of the detail will be in the painting.
Outline of the painting
The drawing was traced onto a prepared canvas; I started blocking in the tree shapes
Mixing dark colours
Mixing dark colours, I started loosely blocking in shapes, keeping the tree limbs visible in places.
Adding Dark and light shapes
I started blocking in dark paint in the foreground. Adding the figures and a single light source from the streetlamp. Introducing shadows in places which gave the composition an illusion of depth.
Adding more detail
Mixing more tones of dark paint and blues, I started painting the background loosely. Adding more of the streetlamps, the snow in the landscape was added and I continued coming forward adding more detail in a loose manner. The composition at this time was coming together nicely.
Painting complete
Adding the tree branches, making sure that none of them were uniform and only painted loosely. Adding more detail to the figures and the dark and highlights being the last things to be done. This painting was never intended to be precise; it was loosely painted composition and I felt I had achieved this. I hope you like the explanation of how it was painted, thank you.