Watercolor painting Tutorial: House beside the waterfall

Watercolor painting is never easy, painting landscapes with watercolors is even harder. In the painting “house by the waterfall” I focus on the house because that is the main object to describe. In other words, the trees, waterfall in the background and the trees and river in the foreground are made less bright, which means that the house in the center of the picture is more prominent.

Watercolor painting technique :

The watercolor technique I used to paint the “house by the waterfall” painting is nothing new.
In short, I just wet the part I want to paint with clean water and paint it. Then wait for it to dry and continue as the previous step until the color is deep enough.

Reference image :

I saw this landscape photo one fine day and I thought it would make an interesting subject for a watercolor painting. It is beautiful, peaceful and colorful. This is a difficult practice. So it’s not for beginners. In this article, I only focus on the colors used, for better understanding please watch the video of the painting process on youtube.

Watercolor painting Tutorial: House beside the waterfall.

Step 1:

Use a hard pencil (HB) to sketch, don’t draw too much detail and keep the sketch clean.

Step 02: Paint the Sky

In the first step, we’ll start with the sky. By using the flat brush to apply a layer of clean water to the area to be painted on the paper. The purpose of this is to make the paper wet.

Apply the first color with Lavender on top and Naples yellow on the bottom of the sky. Blend both colors together to get a smooth wash, and complete the process before the paper dries.

Step 3. Paint the forest and waterfall

After the paper is completely dry. Continue to apply a layer of water to the area to be painted, and wait for the paper to dry a bit. Painting from light to dark, the colors I used in this part are:

The woods on the right are started with Lemon yellow, then add a little Sap green for the mid-tones, and Payne’s grey for the tree’s shadows. Because the light source of the sun is shining from the left.

Paint the dark part of the waterfall with Lavender color, the light part of the waterfall keeps the white color of the paper.

The ridge behind the house, where the waterfall flows. I used a dark color for this area is Payne’s Grey, this means that the house in front will stand out more by contrasting Light and Shadows.

Step 4:

Paint the tree in front of the waterfall with Leaf green color for the light part, and by using Olive green to deepen its dark side. Paint the trunk and its branches with Sepia color.

Step 05: Start the process of painting the house.

Dilute Naples yellow with water and apply it to the roof. Continue painting the walls of the house, I used Permanent orange-yellow for the light walls and add a little Rose Madder to the previous mixture for the shadows, keeping the white areas of the windows and I applied Lavender to them. Add some details on the roof tiles, window panes, tree shadows on the walls and roof of the house, etc..

Step 06: Paint the grass and trees in front of the house.

Similarly, paint the lawn with Cadmium Green Pale, while the color is still flowing, add a little Sap Green. Using the same way to paint the bushes.

Develop the details of the bushes, trees, and grass, noting that the light is coming from left to right. When painting any object, there should be at least 3 main values: highlight, mid-tone, and shadow to create three-dimensional drawings.

Step 07: Paint the River

Use Payne’s Grey to paint the water surface, after the paper dries we add ripples and reflections. My intention when using dark colors for this part was to create a contrast with the light color of the house.

Finished work :

Place the painting about 2-3m away from the eye. Take a look at the whole painting, edit and add unsatisfied details. Watch the whole painting process of this painting on youtube, you will understand better

Watercolor painting technique :

Reference image :