Free Watercolor Lessons & Techniques

Watercolor Painting Demonstration

By D. John Wood

Detailed painting demonstration...

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Materials used: French Ultramarine, Light Red, Naples Yellow, Cobalt Blue and Burnt Umber. The Watercolour paper is Schut Noblesse 140lb not surface. The paper size is 14x10 inches and it has been stretched onto a ply board.

It is not a very good start because I have lost the first sky wash image of this demonstration, never mind I will carry on as if nothing has happened. First of all I have brushed clear water all over the sky area. As the water settles into the paper I now drop a wash of Naples Yellow, as that settles I drop some Cobalt Blue into the bottom area and then I add a mix of Light Red and French Ultramarine. As it dries I go and put the kettle on. It is vital that the paper dries completely or I will spoil the effect.

Now dry I can proceed with the painting. I wet the lower part of the paper and then drop some Naples Yellow in again, a word of caution here, Naples Yellow is very strong so it does not take a lot to achieve the desired effect. Into that I drop a mix of Cobalt Blue and Light Red. As the paper begins to dry I add a little French Ultramarine mixed with Burnt Umber.

After all of this has dried I now add some gentle shadows to the mountain, for this I mix a weak mixture of Cobalt Blue and Light Red. For the dark parts I have used a mix of the same plus some French Ultramarine. Again now, the paper must be left to dry.

The sky must be left now because it is so easy to 'mess to much' and then it spoils the whole painting. I am going to add colour to all areas now except the sky. All I am doing now is increasing the strength of the tone and the colour that is already there by gently adding more colour to it. I resist the temptation to 'fiddle' with the mountain at this stage because it is not far away from what I want. I concentrate instead on the rough grassy area in the foreground. The thing to think about here is the tonal value of the whole scene, if you were to squint your eyes a little you would be aware that the darkest parts of the view will be in the immediate foreground, as you look further into the distance you will see it gets lighter, that is the tone value, the progression from dark to light. It is important for us to remember that or the finished painting will look 'wrong'. It is these obvious points that we sometimes forget. OK I begin to put a little shape and movement into the stream. I am now working almost dry on dry, this is to stop me producing a 'muddy' mix of colour. What I can do now is drop a little water on to the rocks and as it settles I drop a weak mix of Light Red and French Ultramarine, very gently because it only needs a tiny amount. As this is almost dry I add some stronger colour to the extreme edges of them. Again now we need to let everything dry so I might as well put the kettle on!.

Well this is the point now where all I need to do is add a little detail, I have the tone set and the mountain more or less looks as I want it to so I need to be very careful not to overdo it. With this in mind I now work on very small areas a little at a time. To give the grass a little detail I paint in some sharp edges and while that is wet I add some water to it, what that does is give an impression of the blades of grass, I am now working in very small sections so as not to overdo it. The hardest part here now for me is not what to paint, but what not to. It is so easy to overdo it and the whole work is spoiled. When dry I now add some more shade to the mountain and more detail to the rocks as these are drying I paint a some detail into the stream to try and get the water to 'flow' a little. Last I add some spits and spots of paint as I call them this will give an impression of the stones that are all around.
I am now going to walk away from the finished work and leave well alone. I hope you have enjoyed this painting as much as I have, feel free to do your own version of this painting because that is the only way to get more experience, whatever, I wish you well.

By D. John Wood

Visit John's Site: http://www.djohnwoodwatercolourpaintings.co.uk/