Watercolour Lesson 2

Prepare a sky wash the same as we did for the first picture last week and at the same time make up another mix which is much stronger, ie much less water. Paint the whole paper as before in the first part, then wait for it to start to dry. If you look at the paper from a shallow angle you will just see the shine start to dissappear, now using the tip of your large brush drop in some cloud shapes. Larger clouds at the top and gradually getting smaller as you get to the horizon which is going to be about 1/3 to 1/4 of the bottom of the paper. The timing of this is critical, to soon and the paint will mix with the existing sky wash, too late and it will not give the soft effect that we are looking for. Don't worry if your cloud looks patchy it will provide slight variation just as you get in real clouds. Work quickly then leave it alone. This is called 'wet in wet'. Hopefully when it has dried you should end up with something like this.

We now make a weakish mix of blue with just a dash of crimson and paint the far distant hills. This is followed by a slightly stronger mix with a little more crimson to paint the next strip, then again add a little more crimson and a little stronger,for the next strip of land, which should be slightly wider than the one before. What we are doing here is creating the impression of distance, by reducing the blueness and also increasing the tonal value and width of the strip as we come forward in the painting.

Now we should be getting closer to the foreground so again add more crimson and paint another slightly wider strip, followed by the final strip at the bottom of the paper which should be more crimson than blue. Hopefully you should end up with something like this.

Finally we add some hedgerows, starting at the bottom of the furthest strip of colour we paint a with a quite bluish mix a rough representation of hedgerows with the odd bump for slightly larger bushes or small trees. Just remember at this distance you are not going to see any detail it is just an outline suggestion, also keep the base of the hedgerow flat, the bumpy bit should be at the top!

Warm the mix with a bit more crimson and paint the next hedgrow, repeating this as we come forward. With the penultimate hedgerow just paint a few shadows, just a shade darker than the hedgerow itself. When we get to the last one, the mixture can now be quite strong it should still be quite bluish and not as warm as the foreground.Paint this hedgrow making quite distinct shapes, then just as it's drying drop in some shadow areas with a stronger darker mix. You see shadows with closer objects, and more contrast, the shadow tones in the distance become much closer together. Remember in your paintings, keep the detail and contrast in the foreground, that way you will create the impression of distance.

I hope through these two simple exercises you now have some confidence in mixing washes of different strengths, and applying them to the paper at the right time, and also have an understanding how tonal values and colour variations can give depth and distance to your paintings. Remember it may not go well the first few times, but keep practising, that way you can only improve.

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