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Watercolor Painting - Putting it together

A subscriber to my newsletter recently asked how he should begin
to piece everything he has learned in watercolor painting together.

He felt overwhelmed by everything had had currently learned, and
wanted to know how he could try and make sense of it all. And
how I could help him through this phase.

I thought others would also likely be facing this same situation, so
I've reproduced my response on my blog for you to also read.

So please enjoy.

I love being in a candy shop, art shop, art magazine or the Library.
I can't get enough information and all other artists I know are the
same.

Except, those who think they know it all. I had one teacher who used
to say all the way through the lesson that his technique was perfect. I
lasted a month.

I think it was Monet or Renior who said to his son at the ripe old age
of 93 " I'm happy, I think I know now what art is about". I bet he had
lots of books and prints in his collection.

Me, I can't get enough, Just got some new art books for my 60th, these
days it's the only way I can. Some of the watercolor artists books I
have and love are Segas, Wesson, Chamberlain, Ray Campbell Smith,
Fletcher Watson, Alwyn Crawshaw, Ted Kauksky, Joseph Zbukvic,
Jack McDonogh and that's just a few.

I just take what I want from each artist. There are watercolor
artists who paint soft edges by placing a damp towel or damp
blotting under their watercolor paper to keep it wet or artists paint
mostly hard edges.

Someone recently asked what do you offer that others haven't
already done so.

I think the simple answer to that is me, my journey, what I've learnt
over the years. Nobody in the history has ever painted the same
as anyone else.

They may look the same but their work is unique.

One of Australia's greatest artists stopped painting for about 2 yrs
because he said to himself, " It's all been done before."

Then he realised, "but hey, I haven't done it.".

He taught me a lot with that statement and in fact I have recently
gone back to his classes to refine my figures and animals.

My motto is " keep learning ".

About 12yrs ago I stayed at this hotel and the manager asked
where I was going? I said "to paint the Blue Mountains" Don't bother
they've been painted to death.

My reply " I haven't painted them. "

We have all learnt from other artists, books, DVD"s etc.,

I would buy all the books etc., that I can.

I look at the cover and if I like the painting,even though I've never
heard of the artist, then I will buy it,when I can afford it.

Some artists spend a day painting skies, then they paint a
landscape et., to suit the sky later. Save a lot of paint that way.

To me a painting is like a whole lot of doodles that make up a
complete picture.

I've seen artists paint shadows opposite to the way they
should go, to suit the composition.


Remember the greatest teacher of all is NATURE!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOD bless.
Alan Woodland.
P.S. Please leave a comment so we can discuss this further.

Watercolor tutorial of "I'm In The Shed Love"

Welcome to my first tutorial. Which I hope you will really enjoy.

The composition (design) of this painting was created from a number of scenes that I visited in Woodford and Dayboro in Queensland, Australia. We are currently going through a drought, so colours are according to the circumstances.

Please feel free to copy this painting to the best of your ability and if you wish, sell it. Then hopefully you can develop your own designs. There are a thousand ways to make a picture, and all of them are right, this is my way.

Paper used: Saunders and Arches 300gsm rough paper stapled to a board (so there is no stretching involved, because I hate stretching paper :) )

When you use a lot of water the paper will buckle slightly, but this is easily remedied with a hair dryer, or sunlight.

Paint used: Chroma's AM paint This paint is non allergenic, can be used as a watercolor paint, or like an oil paint. They come in a 40ml tube, and I've been able to paint 12 half sheets and 14 quarter sheets with one tube, in watercolor. So I don't have to tell you how much I am truly loving this paint.

Also in this painting I have only used about 5 colours. So this shows that even if you're on a budget you can still produce professional works of art.

So now let's get started. All the best to you, and remember to have fun! And paint, paint, paint, paint! Practice, and enjoy every day of it!

Step 1: Drawing your image

The outline for this drawing has been done for your benefit so you can clearly see what I have done. Please when you do your own drawing on the paper, keep your pencil drawing very very light.

If you don't want to draw directly on your watercolor paper then you could use a light box, or tracing paper, after you have had your image enlarged to the size you require.

When you go on location you want to make a sketch and note the tone numbers, and colour combinations. One thing I like to do is make some short hand notations for the colours I use. So what I will do in this tutorial is begin introducing you to them. It will come in handy for yourself to begin using these shorthand notations as well so that you can quickly think of the colours needed and write them down.

The selection of the correct tones (value, light and shade) is an extremely important step for you to take. The tones allow you to correctly create a 2 dimensional image of your subject, which is 3 dimensional.

I personally work from a tonal chart, from 1 (white) through to 10 (black). Some others do it in reverse, 1 (black) to 10 (white), and others have a tonal chart of 1 to 9. Whatever way you choose, just remember it is an extremely important part to having a fantastic painting or drawing.

I will also create a tutorial tonal chart which will show a painting with the tonal numbers indicated. So watch out for it :)

I have attached here a link to a larger version of this drawing. So if you want you may print this out and trace over it, or use a light box. Click Here For Larger Image. (you can right click and select save as)

Step 2:

Background trees at the base of the mountain are ultramarine blue and a touch of light red. And here I do mean a touch of light red. Light red being a very powerful colour, so be careful how much you mix in the blue.

The middle ground trees are also ultramarine blue plus a little raw sienna.

The foreground trees are a combination of phalo green and raw sienna.

The Jacaranda tree (the one behind the shed) is ultramarine blue (u/bl) and cad red.

Step 3:

By this stage you may have noticed that I did not paint the sky first. My reason being that I like to keep the foliage (leaves) colours of my trees, which extend into the sky, as transparent as possible. This also allows me to work out how I want to place my clouds.

The mountain and the foreground track colours are made from u/bl (ultramarine blue) and l/r (light red) and r/s (raw sienna). The foothills of the mountain are a combination of all three colours, leaning more towards the r/s.

The background and foreground grass are different tonal combinations of r/s and p/g (phalo green).

Step 4:

The water is u/bl and the reflections are p/g, r/s and a touch of u/bl.

When doing reflections the shadow part is lighter than the object and the light part is slightly darker than the object.

The shed is made up of u/bl and l/r.

The shed roof is made up of burnt sienna (b/s) and l/r.

The shadows in the trees are p/g and b/s. I first dampen the areas where I am going to put the shadows for the trees, shed, or whatever with water. When the sheen of the water is gone I then put in the shadows

Step 5:

The trunk of the tree us made up of u/bl, burnt umber (b/u) and r/s.

The corrugated iron on the roof of the shed, was completed by dragging a brush loaded only with burnt sienna paint and no water. The brush hairs are spread out before application and spread over the roof.

Step 6:

The far distant mountain is u/bl and l/r in just a lighter tone than the closer mountain.

For the sky I wash over with a very light wash with r/s.

I then quickly put in my cloud shadows which is cobalt blue (c/b) and l/r.

My blue sky colour is c/b with a touch of l/r just to take the edge off the blue, this is all done in one go. Then I leave it alone until it dries.

After it is completely dry, by using a hair dryer, I then create some hard edges around the lighter part of the cloud with the same colour I originally used for the sky (c/b, l/r), by painting over that same area again, this creates a hard edge. Then I leave it. DO NOT MESS AROUND IN THE SKY. Some people use tissues to lighten part of the cloud, but I have found it doesn't work for me.

Most of my subjects are painted as being 60 feet away, through half closed eyes, as I am not interested in a lot of detail, only an impression of the scene before me.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed creating it.

In the very near future I am going to create a video tutorial of this entire painting. I will repaint this same scene, and show you the steps I take. This is something of which I am very excited about.

If you have any comments, please leave one. It will be much appreciated.


God Bless
Alan Woodland.

watercolour painting

I think as artists we tend to sweat over the little things to much, we need to remember a painting is normally viewed from about 3mtrs away. Therefore I feel that if a little colour overlaps accidently, then this really is not all that important. For my first consideration when doing a painting is the composition,tone and colour and if it looks right, then it probably is.