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Back to: Demonstrations | Latest News 2009 | Home
Watercolour Seascape
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simplified version of my painting 'Windswept' is one of the step-by-step paint-along
demonstrations I do at my Absolute Beginners workshop. It uses
several different techniques for applying the paint, but a minimum of
colour mixing and hardly any drawing. Do read through ALL these
notes before starting on your own painting - it will make things much
easier. If you would like to
let me know how you get on that would be great (but please don't send
an image of your painting as an attachment as unsolicited attachments are
never opened). Tip: click on the finished picture at the bottom of the page to open a larger version in a new window. You can then refer to this easily as you read through the instructions. |
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Use masking tape to
mark off a small rectangle - this example is 14 x 21 cm. Don't make
it too small to work in but don't give yourself such a big area you can't
control it. Tip: press masking tape onto your skin or clothes to remove most of its tackiness before you stick it on the paper. This minimises the chances of you tearing the paper when you remove the tape. Lightly draw a horizontal line just over a third of the way up. (That's all the drawing done!). Cut a very thin piece of masking tape and stick it with its top straight edge on the underside of the line. This will be our tropical island and the tape means you can paint the sea and sky without worrying about getting paint on it. Tip: it is easier to mask small areas like this with masking fluid, but that would take too long to dry in a workshop situation which is why we use tape. |
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| Laying a wash Using a clean brush and clean water, dampen (don't soak) the area above the horizon line. Mix up a puddle of cobalt blue paint. Using a size 10 brush, draw a band of paint across the top of your paper, then immediately pass the brush back the other way slightly below but overlapping the first band, then back again and so on so that you work your way down the paper. The fact that the paper is damp will help these bands to merge smoothly and you should be able to avoid hard lines. When you need to reload the brush with paint, dip it in your water first and dilute your puddle of paint so that you are gradually using thinner (paler) paint as you work your way down. You need to work quickly and smoothly but don't rush and panic. Tip: if you have your paper propped at an angle (the easiest way to work) and you find paint collecting along the bottom edge, draw a nearly dry brush along the line to blot up the extra. |
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Lifting off Use a lightly scrunched up piece of kitchen paper to dab out some clouds. The key here is to be very gentle and to do it before the paint has dried very much. This is a useful technique in its own right but for beginners it also means you don't have to worry too much if your sky wash is not perfectly smooth and flawless. |
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| Wet on dry This means painting (wet) over areas that have already been painted and dried (dry). Let's start with some more of the cobalt blue we used on the sky. Still using your size 10 brush, painting loosely and freely over the sea area below the horizon. Let a few patches of white paper show through. Keep your strokes generally horizontal. Tip: make sure you paint right up to and over the masking tape at the sides and bottom. That is what it is there for. |
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Now we will
introduce some more colours and will continue to paint loosely so that we
will see patches of different layers showing through. Paint on small
patches of colour and then use your brush to move the paint around on the
paper, merging and fading with the colours already there. If some of
the previous layers are still a little damp, that is OK, but avoid
painting on really wet paint or your colours will run a lot. We
don't want that in this part of the painting. As well as cobalt, try
using cerulean and ultramarine blues and maybe a very small amount of
alizarin crimson to warm it up in places. Go easy on the alizarin or
it might look like there has been an unfortunate shark attack in the
water. Tip: let your colours get paler towards the horizon and stronger at the bottom of the painting. This gives the impression of distance. |
| Very carefully peel off the masking tape on your island. Mix some cadmium yellow with the tiniest amount of cadmium red to get a nice sand colour. With a size 8 brush paint in your island, leaving a very thin line of white along the bottom edge to represent the waves breaking on the shore. Let this dry before moving on to the last stage. |
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Wet on wet This means painting on to wet areas of paint so that the two colours merge and we are going to use this technique to paint the trees on the island. Mix up roughly equal parts of cadmium yellow and french ultramarine to get a rich olive green. Using your size 8 brush, paint the trees all in one go working from one side to the other. Tip: it is really important that you do not try to paint individual trees: from this distance you would only see a mass of green. Now quickly while the paint is still wet, get some pure french ultramarine on the tip of your brush and touch it along the bottom edge of the trees. This will bleed upwards into the wet paint, giving the impression of darker shadows. It will not bleed down on to the sand because you had waited for the sand to dry before you did this. Finally carefully peel off the masking tape around the edge and your painting is finished. Well done! |
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The finished painting - |
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Click on the image to the left to see a larger version of the finished piece. |
Jane holds one and two-day watercolour workshops
where you can learn more about these techniques.
For details please click here.
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All images and site content
copyright © Jane Duke 2004-2010 |
