The silent surface of the water of the lake, trees, and the sky are reflected as in a mirror to create a beautiful landscape in a peaceful and cool atmosphere. As an artist, I have to capture this moment.
This tutorial is a demonstration video available on my youtube channel. Thank you for watching.
Necessary Materials
Paper: Saunder Waterford cold-pressed 300gsm watercolor paper is my choice.
Pigments: Here is a list of the pigments I used:
Jaune brilliant no1; Lavender; Naples yellow; Leaf Green; Verditer Blue; Olive Green; Ultramarine Violet; Indanthrone Blue’, Brilliant Pink.
Brushes: Large goat hair brush; Calligraphy brush, rigger brush, Small Flat Brush.
Other: Graphite pencil, Pallette, Water bucket, Drawing boat.
The Step by Step Process for Watercolor painting landscape
1. Make a Line Drawing
As always, before applying any applications of watercolor, I’ll need to start with a light pencil sketch of the outlines. After that, I fixed the paper on the drawing board with masking tape.Â
2. Paint the sky
Apply a layer of water all over the surface of the paper by using a large flat brush loaded with water.
While the paper is still moist. Use various light washes of lavender, Jaune Brilliant no1, and a touch of Brilliant Pink to create a loose base.
When the paper is dry. Start painting the grouping of trees on the right. The light side of them is a mixture of Naples Yellow, and Leaf Green (or colors of similar value ). Paint the darker side by adding more Lavender and Verditer Blue into the previous mixture. Remember to vary these mixtures from light to dark in different mixing ratios to create an abundance of the value. keep the light coming from the left. Note that, these colors are applied over the moistened surface with a brush lightly loaded with water.Â
Paint the vegetation on the riverbank in the same way.
In the same way. Let’s Paint the trees on the left from light to dark. The value range is pushed darker by adding more Green in this area to suggest the group of trees on the right is more outstanding. This means that the group of trees on the left looks darker than the ones on the right.
3. Paint the water of the landscape painting
Apply a light wash of Lavender and Brilliant Pink that is darker than the previous base layer. Do this step while the paper is still damp.
While this is damp, paint the reflections of the trees on the water. The reflection begins with a base application of Leaf Green before adding various mixtures of Verditer Blue and a touch of Olive Green over the previous color layer. Adding darkest values of reflection with various mixtures of Ultramarine Violet, Indanthrone Blue, and Verditer Blue.
4.Paint the details of Watercolor painting landscape.
Add more details of the vegetation below the trees. Paint the branches of the trees, leaves, and foliage to increase the detail of the whole watercolor painting until you are happy with them. Note that, make sure not to over-detail.
I continue to develop the values darker and increase the contrast of colors. To darken the shadows in the bushes, a touch of Lavender and Indanthrone Blue are added to the green mixture.
Finished watercolor painting landscape
Did you find this tutorial helpful? If you have a question about watercolor landscape painting.
Your comments will help me have more joy and motivation to continue my creative work. To understand more, check out my video of the landscape watercolor painting process on youtube.
