Techniques on How to Paint Mountains

Underpaint with Warm Colors

• Especially when painting with oils or pastels, an underpainting with warmer colors --- such as umbers --- might seem counterproductive for the sky or mountains, but can brighten the colors you use for the mountains and backdrops. Make a wash of raw umber and glaze your canvas with that. Then lay in colors for the sky over that and prior to beginning the mountains. Starting with that technique will help your mountains to "pop" once you begin laying the color down.
  
  

Vary Your Colors

• If you look at a snowy mountain range, you might think that you're looking at gray, black and white palette. But look a little closer and you'll find purples, blues, pinks and many other colors in the mountains. Mix your colors to include deeper purples instead of blacks, and snow colors to contain a little blue or pink, rather than stark white.
  
  

Use Palette Knives Instead of Brushes

• When painting a good craggy mountain, you want the top edges to be very sharp. Using a brush to paint those edges can muddy the lines and keep the edges from being perfectly sharp. Use a palette knife instead to lay your mountain color in. Drag the flat edge of your knife through the paint, getting a thin bead along the edge. Run the edge along the canvas in the angles you want the mountains portrayed. You can also use this technique to add snow to a mountain, dragging the knife down the side lightly so snow looks natural.
  
  

Remember Where the Light Is

• Often when painting a mountain scene, the artist forgets which direction the sun is shining. If it is setting behind the mountains, for example, the shapes and contours of the mountain will be dark and not easily seen. If it is shining from somewhere to the side, or "over the artist's shoulder," you need to remember in painting angles of the mountain, so that those sides that face the light are painted with warmer, more light colors.