Mountain painting progression

I had my easel set up in my apartment, next to a large window and beautiful views of the Bridger Mountain Range. For a friends' birthday, I decided to paint a snowy mountain. I had never painted a mountain before, and snow was also new for me.

The painting started with an idea of how the mountains should be shaped. I blocked in the sky and the mountains in the foreground. Knowing that my light source came from the left, I was able to shape the mountains and ridges by implying shadows and light reflections.

I allowed the sky and foreground mountains to dry for a day, then began working with the snow covered mountains. Again, I implied slopes and ridges using light and shadow. This look was best achieved by painting the darks where the shadow should lie, then white on the lit areas. Using a dry brush and a U-shaped sweeping motion, the contrasting colors were lightly blended.

After all of the mountains had been shaped and had a day to dry, I added touches of dark and lights in the snow covered mountains to implicate details. I also added touches of yellow, blues and alizarin crimson to suggest the reflection of the blue sky and sun. White was added to the mountains in the foreground, and a dry brush was used to feather out the white.

Before the painting was finished, I darkened the sky using a Phthalo Blue mixture, which ended up contrasting nicely with the mountains. The sky before was too light and pale.