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SCALE
All media
By adding some figures
to your painting you will indicate scale easily. An adult figure is a
known quantity and this helps you to work out the proportions of other
elements. The figures do not have to be detailed, a few brush strokes
will be fine.
SKIES
All media
Skies are a very
important part of a landscape, but they are changing all the time. You
might find it helpful to either do a colour sketch or take a photograph
in order to capture a particular sky.
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Colour and tone should fade towards the horizon to convey the impression
of recession
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Clouds are three-dimensional – normally the tops will face the sun and
therefore they will be lighter in tone than the sides and bottoms
·
The foreground clouds should be larger than those near the horizon as
this will enhance the sense of space
Watercolour
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Wet in wet washes are perfect for portraying rainy skies.
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Watercolour is very unpredictable and therefore every sky you paint will
be different.
WATER
All media
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The mood of a landscape painting can be changed by adding water (for
example a pond or river), which mirrors the sky and adds light to a
painting. There are several techniques to capture depth, wetness and
reflections.
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With streams and ponds, often the sky can be partly obscured the only
light coming through the foliage. Where the water is in shade the
surface has no reflections and you should be able to see the bed. Where
the light is strongest you will only see the surface.
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Ripples in the water will fragment the image
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It is important to study water and paint what you can see not what you
think you see.
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You can suggest depth by using vertical brushstrokes
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In calm still water the reflections will be sharp and clear
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If a building sits right on the edge of the water then the reflection
should be exactly the same size. If it sits back from the edge then
only the top part will be reflected
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If the water is moving, then reflections are a mixture of any
surrounding colours, and they will be fragmented and blurred.
Watercolour
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You can use both wet on wet and wet on dry for water
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Sparkles of light on water can be obtained by either splattering masking
fluid with a toothbrush or scratching out with a knife.
Seas
All media
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In the distance the waves should be smaller, closer together and the
colours lighter than the foreground
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If you paint the waves with fluid brushstrokes and in the same direction
that they are flowing you will capture their shapes more easily.
Watercolour
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You need to work quickly similarly to skies, water is never still.
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For calm water one darker wash overlaying a lighter wash will be fine.
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For waves which are breaking on the shore, you need to include dark
shadows in order to give the waves substance
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Wet on dry washes are a very good technique for convincing seas, whether
it is calm, or stormy.
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Reserve your whites carefully before you start.
Painting sparkling water
Watercolour
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Brilliant reflections are caused by sunlight on water. Try to capture
the light and translucency of the water.
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Spatter or stipple masking fluid over the area.
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Use highly textured paper and drag the paint across the surface with a
dry brush.
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You can also use white gouache or soft pastel for highlights you may
have missed.
Rain
All media
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Painting rain can be challenging. You will need to practice sketching
the effects of rain.
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Your palette needs to be neutral and muted colours only.
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It is easier to imply rain by painting overcast threatening skies and
wet ground.
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The sky and background will merge together if the rain is heavy.
Watercolour
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To make falling rain use dry brush techniques in the direction you want
the rain to be falling, using a darker colour dragged over a dry wash in
a lighter tone.
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Wet in wet washes are best for pouring rain effect
SHADOWS
All media
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Shadows can be as important as the solid objects that cast them and they
add drama and pattern to a painting.
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Early morning and sunny afternoons cast the best shadows for painting as
they cast the furthest and most distinctive of all shadows. Shadows
will affect the mood of a painting so it is important to get them right.
Contrasts of light and dark will evoke sunshine and warmth whilst soft
shadow will evoke a more overcast day.
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Decide where the light source is coming from and made sure your shadows
are consistent in their direction.
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Shadows will become paler and cooler the farther away they are (a rule
of aerial perspective)
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Shadows will become smaller and closer together as they move farther
away (a rule of linear perspective)
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Remember - Depending upon how near the shadow is to the object casting
it, you will see a difference in the tone. For example the shadow of a
tree will be sharp and dark near the base and soft and light farther
away because more light is reflected into it.
Watercolour
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If you overmix your colours they will not look right. Shadows should be
luminous and have depth. They are not solid
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For crisp sunny day shadows use wet-on-dry. Let your painting dry
before adding the shadow.
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For softer effects use wet-in-wet or wet-on-damp, you will have to judge
which of these is the better technique for the effect you require.
MOONLIGHT
All media
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The absence of colour means that you can use a limited palette to great
effect.
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Use close tones and subtle gradations of tone rather than sharp
contrasts.
Watercolour
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Apply very thin, semi-translucent body colour, use tiny brushstrokes or
smear the paint lightly
SNOWSCAPES
All media
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The land will be much brighter than the sky, which is the opposite of
normal landscapes. If you make tonal sketches you can work out where
the white needs to be.
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Heavy snow will settle on most areas of the painting, so you must not
forget things like tops of fence posts and the tops side of twigs and
branches.
Watercolour
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Snowscapes are not easy for watercolourists. It is essential to plan.
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Keeping the white of the paper white is the most common way to paint
snow in watercolour.
TREES
All media
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You need to look at trees and learn their different shapes, forms and
textures before you can paint them properly. The more you look the
better you will be.
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The tops of trees differ considerably between different species.
They can be
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Rounded, narrow or columnar
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Smooth or ragged in outline
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Small or large leaves
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Dense, sparse or clumpy
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Observe how the branches grow out from the trunk of different trees
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Suggest the foliage textures with light and dark tones
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For the detail on nearer trees try wet on dry techniques
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Show distant trees as soft tonal patches of colour
Watercolour
Summer -
Stippling, sponging, dabbed marks and scumbling are all ideal for
foliage and create good broken colour effects. Include some tiny
amounts of complementary reds and ochres to the broken colour to help
improve your greens
Winter
– Along the twigs and twig ends are buds and these help identify the
species of the tree. Winter trees are not grey you should use a palette
which has warm and cool neutral colours.
FLOWERS
All media
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Study flowers taking notice of the number of petals and leaves of each
type.
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If you are painting a border remember that the border will become bluer
and more blurred the further away they are, this is aerial perspective.
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With a garden scene you should be free with your brushstrokes, but if
you are painting a flower study then you will need to be more detailed
and precise
Watercolour
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Watercolour is a fantastic when used for floral paintings. Try to be
bold and don’t paint them in pale washes. Flowers come in many vivid
colours.
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Keep colours fresh by using clean water and clean brushes.
COLOURS
Watercolour
Spring Colours
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If you want to paint crocus and lilac you will need ready mixed colours
as the ones you can mix yourself are not clean or bright enough
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These are often very bright due to the sun being so low in the sky
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Greens in spring are more acid than later in the year
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Try using Cadmium lemon or lemon yellow as a base for your spring greens
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For spring colours try using touches of unmixed colour
Autumn Colours
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Vivid reds, golds and russets offer wonderful opportunities for the
watercolourist
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Mix autumn colours using a basic palette only and emphasising the warmer
tones
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These are often muted and are very different from the bright clear
colours of spring.
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Concentrate on earth colours – yellow ochre, raw sienna and Indian red
with the complimentary shades of violet, blue and green. If the bright
autumn colours are too vivid and fiery you can reduce the brightness
with the complimentary colour. See colour wheels if you are unsure.
STONE AND BRICK
All media
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In landscapes there is often some hard component which brings a contrast
to the foliage and grass. It is not necessary to include every brick or
tile, just suggest with a minimum detail and allow the eye to do the
rest.
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Learn to observe different textures of brickwork and stone
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Bricks are made from baked clay and come in colours from yellow
blue-grey orange and red.
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Natural stone flagstones are hand cut and come in different sizes and
surfaces, you need to vary them
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When painting drystone walls remember they are made by craftsmen who
select the stones in random shapes and sizes
Watercolour
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Roof tiles are generally made by machines and are regular and
symmetrical. Apply wet on dry with a flat brush to paint them.
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Roof slates are hand made and less regular so paint them in wet in wet
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