Discover how to paint a waterfall with watercolour and add white highlights to your wet paint in our video tutorial with artist Ewa Karpinska.
Watercolor painting Tutorial: House beside the waterfall
by artpaintingblog April 11, 2022
written by artpaintingblog April 11, 2022 0 comment
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Watercolor painting is never easy, painting landscapes with watercolors is even harder. In the painting “house by the waterfall” I focus on the house because that is the main object to describe. In other words, the trees, waterfall in the background and the trees and river in the foreground are made less bright, which means that the house in the center of the picture is more prominent.
Watercolor painting technique :
The watercolor technique I used to paint the “house by the waterfall” painting is nothing new.
In short, I just wet the part I want to paint with clean water and paint it. Then wait for it to dry and continue as the previous step until the color is deep enough.
I saw this landscape photo one fine day and I thought it would make an interesting subject for a watercolor painting. It is beautiful, peaceful and colorful. This is a difficult practice. So it’s not for beginners. In this article, I only focus on the colors used, for better understanding please watch the video of the painting process on youtube.
Watercolor painting Tutorial: House beside the waterfall.
Step 1:
Use a hard pencil (HB) to sketch, don’t draw too much detail and keep the sketch clean.
Step 02: Paint the Sky
In the first step, we’ll start with the sky. By using the flat brush to apply a layer of clean water to the area to be painted on the paper. The purpose of this is to make the paper wet.
Apply the first color with Lavender on top and Naples yellow on the bottom of the sky. Blend both colors together to get a smooth wash, and complete the process before the paper dries.
Step 3. Paint the forest and waterfall
After the paper is completely dry. Continue to apply a layer of water to the area to be painted, and wait for the paper to dry a bit. Painting from light to dark, the colors I used in this part are:
The woods on the right are started with Lemon yellow, then add a little Sap green for the mid-tones, and Payne’s grey for the tree’s shadows. Because the light source of the sun is shining from the left.
Paint the dark part of the waterfall with Lavender color, the light part of the waterfall keeps the white color of the paper.
The ridge behind the house, where the waterfall flows. I used a dark color for this area is Payne’s Grey, this means that the house in front will stand out more by contrasting Light and Shadows.
Paint A Waterfall In Watercolor – Step By Step – With Sujit Sudhi
Waterfalls are a pleasure to watch and a delight to paint. They are challenging subjects but if handled properly, painting a waterfall can be a very satisfying experience. “Deep In The Woods” is based on a waterfall from the beautiful Wisconsin countryside and I’d like to walk you through the steps I followed to paint a waterfall and create this painting. It all starts with drawing and it’s anybody’s guess that the most powerful arrow in the artist’s quiver is the one that (s)he uses to draw with. If you cannot draw, you cannot paint. No amount of colour can mask poor drawing skills and hence I urge you to practice drawing as much as you can and as often as you can. To paraphrase comedian Jerry Sienfeld – ‘If you want to get better at something, do it every day. Do it on Christmas. Do it on Thanksgiving.’ And I believe that nothing truer has ever been said.
How To Paint A Waterfall In Watercolor – Step By Step
This painting was done on Saunders Waterford cold pressed paper but you are free to use your favourite brands of paper, paints and brushes. I used a 2B pencil to draw the main shapes. Notice how I did not go into the details with the drawing and merely suggested the overall shapes of the elements.
Once you are happy with the drawing, it’s time to wet your brushes. Different artists take different approaches to laying in their washes. Some start landscape paintings with the sky wash. Some others lay what’s sometimes referred to as a ‘mother wash’ over the entire painting surface. This serves as an underpainting of sorts. But some artists, like me, work on the point of interest to begin with. What I am going to detail out in this tutorial is my way of painting and that by no means is the only way. Whatever approach you choose, make sure you enjoy it because in the end that’s all that matters. I start by wetting the entire area of the paper above the horizon with clean water and wait for a couple of minutes for the paper to lose it shine before I start applying paint. Always have two jars of water – one to rinse your brushes in and the other for clean water. If you do not use clean water to mix paints or to wet your painting surface you will never achieve the magical transparency that makes watercolor paintings shine. More importantly, you will never be able to get oil painters to wonder ‘How the heck do they do it?’ and lose their sleep over it. Just kidding. I use quick downward strokes to suggest the rocks loading my ¾” flat brush separately with Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue. I allow the pigments to mix on paper and create rock like patterns. When I paint a waterfall, the water area is left unpainted but I make sure some of the edges are soft and some are hard. This not only creates variety but also gives it a very painterly appearance. I also drop in some blue for the sky patch on top and let it merge with the rock shape.
While the wash is still wet, I move on to the next step where I work on the foliage shapes. I load my brush with greens and blues and drop in the paint to the wet area and the wetness on the paper carries the pigment around creating the impression of clumps of foliage. I use Raw Sienna at some places to have some variety. When the wash is dry I use some brush drawing to suggest edges of the foliage and use the long point of a rigger brush to paint the branches. In some dark areas, I scrape out the branches using the bottom tip of my brush. A razor blade or the edge of a credit card would work just fine. I have always used Visa but a Mastercard might work too!
Before I move on to the next step, I need a dry surface to work on and hence I leave the painting to dry. I use a drier when I am in a hurry but prefer to let washes dry the natural way. Once the washes are bone dry, I use a dark mix (Burnt Sienna + Prussian Blue) to suggest a few more tree trunks and branches. This allows me to create some depth.
Now I move on to the rocks. I use a weak wash of Ultramarine Blue with a touch of Burnt Sienna to paint in the rocks. I always keep the light source in mind and make sure that the sunlit areas are left unpainted. For those rocks whose edges meet with the water I pre-wet the area to achieve soft edges. Notice how I have used brush drawing to create broken edges on the rocks to suggest their texture. These are small tricks that help you a great deal in creating convincing texture and such. The key is not just to understate, but to also do it the right way.
The next step is to paint the rest of the rock formation. I use the same colours but make sure that the mix is much stronger since it will be used to depict shapes in the foreground which are closer to the viewer.
All that’s left now is to shape the flowing water. What’s important to remember when you paint a waterfall is what you DO NOT paint. I have taken extreme care to leave most of the water area unpainted. I wet the shadow sides of the water keeping the light source in mind and drop in some blue pigment which spreads due to the wetness on the surface and creates the effect of falling and flowing water.
If something begins to looks like what you intended it to look like, STOP. Do not work on it anymore. If your goal is to capture every bit of detail, it’s about time you traded your brushes for a camera. As artists, we are here to suggest and to complete a painting in the eyes of a viewer. Always whisper. Loud people are not so popular anyway.
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial of how to paint a waterfall. Please leave your comments and suggestions and I’ll be back with another tutorial soon. So long. Happy painting. Sujit Sudhi
HOW TO PAINT A WATERFALL WITH WATERCOLOUR?
THE SKETCH AND SUPPORT
Draw the subject with a lead pencil. Wet the support by applying water to both sides of the paper.
MIXING THE COLOUR
Create a dark shade using Burnt Sienna and Payne’s Grey to paint the rocks. The body of water is created with Turquoise Blue, Burnt Umber and undercut with Payne’s Grey.
ADDING THE FEATURES AND LIGHT
Paint the water around the rocks, applying the diluted colours with a synthetic brush. Emphasise the light areas applying lines of clean water with a fine round brush.
HOW TO CREATE RESERVES ?
White is a source of light that brings contrast to the work. Creating a reserve is the process of isolating areas where the white of the paper appears. There are several techniques to bring brightness and create reserves: reserve white areas avoiding painting on them, use drawing gum (see below), remove pigment with a wet brush or overlay using china white or even titanium white (gouache) more opaque in mixed media.
DRAWING GUM
Drawing gum – also known as masking fluid and liquid frisket – is a product that makes it easy to create striking graphic effects. It can be applied to both blank and prepared surface.
Applied to the surface prior to the application of colours, it enables you to mask off areas that you don’t want to be coloured. Left to dry for several minutes, it can be easily rubbed off to reveal the surface below. The drawing gum can be used regardless of technique: gouache, acrylic, watercolour, ink, etc. The new blue-coloured gum makes it easier to see the outline created.
How to use drawing gum?
1. Apply with a quill or a palette knife to the area you want to mask off.
2. Let it dry for 1 to 3 minutes then apply the colour.
3. Remove the gum by rubbing it with your finger once dry to reveal
