The Timeline of a Watercolour Landscape
The Timeline of a Watercolour Landscape
Below you can see the step by step process used to create my latest watercolour landscape - "St Ives Harbour, Cornwall", from the initial sketch through to the finished painting.
I hope you enjoy following the process , If you would like any further information, to discuss a commission or request a quotation please contact
jon@pawtraitsbyjon.co.uk
I start by working out the proportions and scale of the painting compared to the photograph and then complete a rough sketch.
It is very important to get everything right at this stage, as it very difficult to make adjustments to the scale or position of anything after I have started painting.
I then mix all the paints that I will need to start the painting, usually for the sky and the foreground (in this case - the sky, the houses and the beach). I can spend up to an hour mixing all the colours before I start painting, it is very important to get the colours exactly the same as the photo, and having used the same brand of paints for many, many years I instinctively know which colour paints I need to mix to get the desired result.
I start with the sky, which is fairly simple in this painting - a nice blue summer sky with some light white clouds in, the clouds are made by "dabbing" away some of the blue paint with sponges.
I mostly paint "wet in wet", which means covering the sky part of the paper with a few coats of clean water and then blending the blue paint into it as it drys, this technique is particularly useful for painting sunsets.
The next stage is to fill in some of the background details, the harbour wall and the shops and houses on the quay. To keep some of the white details in the buildings such as the windows, I use "masking fluid" - a liquid rubber type of solution that can be painted on to the paper, painted over and then rubbed off with fingertips to leave the white paper showing.
I now add some more details to the building and the harbour wall, I am now ready to start painting the beach in the foreground. Before I do that I paint all the boats with a layer of masking fluid - as you will see later, this leaves them pure white paper when the fluid is removed so that they can be painted last of all.
The beach is painted "wet in wet" the same as the sky was, using the same process of blending the colours in as the paper slowly dries.
I now add some details into the beach foreground, such as the ropes and chains for the anchors and some pebbles and seaweed.
Once I am happy with the beach, I add the final details to the buildings and the harbour wall. At this stage the painting is starting to come to life.
The masking fluid can now be removed from the boats, leaving pure white paper underneath.
I now start painting the boats, it's crucial to be very careful and patient at this stage as so much time has already been spent on the painting that any mistakes are very hard to rectify and could ruin the painting.
The last stage is to put the final details on the boats and the harbour wall railings. At this point I use some white "gouache" paint for the highlights on the boats. I also add the people on the quay and on the beach.
The painting is now finished.
Below you can see the finished painting with the photograph it was painted from.
The two are never identical, as the painting develops and evolves as it goes along, all I am trying to do is my own interpretation of the photo. Sometimes the colours may be different and sometimes I add or remove features to make the painting more interesting or to add a point of focus.
