Watercolor scenery painting in the early morning. We will learn to paint trees and foliage, vegetation and grasses, and fresh air, as well as reflections on the river. As you can see, all the edges in the sky, trees, water, and vegetation area, apart from the trees and grass on the left, are totally soft. This is achieved by using the wet-on-wet technique to paint the watercolor landscape painting, Let’s go!
Necessary Materials
Paper: Saunders Waterford cold pressed paper 300gsm; however, you also are free to use any brands of paper, paint, and brush as you see fit.
Pigments: Here is a list of the pigments I used:
Permanent Yellow light; Lavender; Sap Green; Hoziron Blue; Cobalt Green; Leaf Green; Indigo; Olive Green; Veriditer blue; Hooker’s Green; Yellow ocher
Brushes: Rigger brush, Flat Brush, Rough Brush, calligraphy brush
Other: Graphite pencil, Pallette, Water bucket, Drawing boat, masking tape.
Watercolor scenery painting – Step By Step
1. Make a Line Drawing
As usual, I create a pencil sketch with the main outlines and not be drawn too detailed and keep the drawing clean. After that, fixed the paper on the drawing board with masking tape.
2. Paint the Sky of my watercolor scenery painting
By using a large flat brush soaked in water, I start wetting the entire area of the paper. While the paper is wet I start applying paint. I put in blue-sky sections, first I apply a mixture of Lavender and Veriditer blue in a random fashion; next, using my brush loaded with Cobalt Green, I move the brush fast to cover the sky area. Note, leave a space to suggest clouds.
3. Paint the Trees in Distance
While the paper is still moist, I move down below, where I work with the trees in the distance. I use a mixture of Lemon Yellow and Leaf Green for the first step (light value). I apply (Sap Green + Leaf Green) for the next step (MediumValue) and Sap green for Dark Value. Of course, all these steps are done on a wet paper surface. The trees in the background are painted loosely, the simpler the better. By the way, I paint the base of the vegetation just below by using the same colors as above.
4. Paint the Vegetation and river
At this stage, the paper was a bit dry so I re-wet it by using a flat brush loaded with water. I paint the water surface by washing a light layer of a mix of Cobalt Green, and a bit of Verditer Blue (for variety) to create a loose base. Next, I paint the vegetation on the left, giving mainly a loose base by applying Permanent yellow light, a touch of Oliver Green and Leaf Green. I allow these pigments to mix on the paper.
5.Finished watercolor painting landscape
I paint in the main shapes of the trunk on the left, I begin with Yellow Ocher and allow the Indigo to cover it while it was still wet. I suggest small branches by using a rigger brush.
Next, while the paper is still moist, I add in some darker patches of vegetation on the right. The colors used here are Sap Green, Indigo, and Oliver Green.
6. Paint the foliage
Next, I paint the foliage. It looks complicated, don’t worry if you don’t know where to begin. I put in the first wash by applying Permanent Yellow light, and Leaf green (light value). Sap green, Leaf Green (medium value); Indigo, Hooker’s Green (dark value). Applying free, fast, and random brushwork to suggest their form. Next, drop thick washes of Indigo over that area to suggest the darker value.
7. Developing the Grasses
Paint the second layer of the bush of my watercolor landscape. The grasses were painted with the same colors as those used for the previous layer painting but using less water, the color layers are thicker to strengthen the intensity.
8. Paint the reflection of the tree of my watercolor painting
To Create the Reflections on the river is loose and smooth. I use the wet-on-wet technique, meaning moisten the paper before applying any applications of watercolor. Re-use the same colors as the ones you used to paint the trees and vegetation. To brush steadily from top to bottom and keep varying the colors and values used to create the variety.
9. Adding the final details of the watercolor painting
Perfecting the final details of the grasses in the foreground, they need to be more detailed and clear than the rest. I added some random details to the grass on the left by using a mixture of Indigo, Sap Green, Hooker’s Green, and more branches growing from the trunk by using the thicker version of Indigo.
Finish my watercolor landscape painting - Morning River
Enjoying your watercolor scenery painting brings good results. If you found this tutorial helpful? Let me know what you think in the comments below. I’ll be back with another watercolor tutorial soon.