Watercolor Garden Fantasy week 2

This week I started painting in the rocks the waterfall and some of the plants around the pagoda and beginnings of detailing the pine tree and other bushes.

The first thing I did was a quick demo on how to under paint the waterfall. I made a larger full page drawing of a similar waterfall and showed how I under paint for the rocks and also for the water. Remember when you were painting watercolor you work from the lightest area to the darkest area so when you under paint something you don't want to get too dark too soon.

There are a couple of ways that you can do this: you can wet the rocks area of first and then start adding some light colors like grey - which is a combination of your blue, burnt sienna, and purple with lots of water – and to that you can add more blue or you could have little touches of orange or red or yellow even green because a lot of these rocks will have moss on them so green is the perfect color, just keep everything light in value at this point.  Be sure to have your reference photo in front of you so that you can refer to it often I keep my reference photo right there where I can look up to it and I do as I'm painting, it’s called a reference photo for a reason because you need to refer to it.

The water also starts out very light. The water in the reference photo is a greenish color probably because of algae for one and also the greenery above it, so if you want to make your water more green that's perfectly OK, I chose at this time to use a light blue and if you have other colors besides the ultramarine blue such as cobalt blue or cerulean blue, you can use those, just be sure you have enough water in them that they are very light in value.

When you paint your water remember that water finds its own level, that means when it is sitting in a pool area it is going to be very flat so your strokes need to be very horizontal, when they fall over the rocks they become more vertical your brush strokes will tell your viewer that the water is falling over rocks or lying flat in a pool, brushstrokes matter.

I also want it made very clear I have not removed the masking fluid from any of my painting it is still on there because I'm still painting around things and as soon as I feel it is safe I will remove the masking fluid but not at this time. You do have some time before it becomes a problem.

I under painted theneedles of the pine tree. They're formed in clumps because they are cut and train that way but they still have a bit of irregularity to the edges, be sure when you are painting that you create interesting shapes. I used the very edge of my angle brush to create the illusion of the pine needles so that the point was to the outside, I overlapped my strokes in the body of the clump but when I got to the edge I make sure that it looked very spiky like

Torrance Version

needles, when I change color to create the next value I did the same thing and again with a darker value it's all the same kind of brush strokes. For the lighter colors of the pine tree I used my sap green with some of my yellow. l under painted the whole area of the pine needles. The mid-tone color I added in more of the sap green and painted in the mid-values and for the very shadows I added in blue and some Hooker’s green for my shadows I also use this dark shadow color as the underneath shadow for the little tree on the right hand side of the pagoda, also it becomes the shadows in its variations for the ground covers adding more blue, purple or sienna to change the color a bit.

On the right hand side I used some of my medium greens to create some detail in the green background trees. I also use that color to negative paint into the orange in front of it to suggest clumps of leaves and branches in the tree in front but in the orange tree behind the green tree I used my red with a touch of orange to create shadows so that the green tree will stand out. Remember, you are negative painting the lighter trees in front when you are paint the shadows of the tree behind. I also added some red leaves coming in from the right hand side, I just like the shape and color so I added them you do not need to put them in but if you want to, you can they are just stuff.

PV Version

I also under painted the tree trunk and branches on the pine tree using a light gray color slightly on the bluish side. I need this color so that when I want to make the tree bark this color will show through. For the little tree behind the pagoda I mixed a dark brown using my burnt Sienna with blue and a touch of purple you want it to be on the Siena side.

Do as much as you can and as much as you feel confident that you can do, I won't miss anything for those who need more instructions, however, if you feel you can you can work into the painting a bit feel free, I will continue from here in class I will not leave anyone behind. By now you should be able to start seeing how this is going to work out I know it's been a bit confusing but splattering can be fun so keep painting and I will see you in class.