While you let the banks dry, use the size 6 brush and muddy brown paint to gently draw in a few tree trunks and branches on the left-most trees in the forest background. Be careful not to touch any wet paint, and make sure to taper the end of each brushstroke to get a good tree structure. Remember to break up any patterns that may begin to form, and don’t overdo the details. You can come back to this section later to finish up the rest of the background once the paint is dry.
Fun Lake Scene Teaches Watercolor Techniques For Water & Reflections
The award-winning painter, Steve Curl, teaches you how to paint a boat on a shimmery lake using classic watercolor techniques such as the “wet-in-wet” technique (also called the “variegated wash” technique). Want to watch the video version? The full tutorial is available to members of our Beeblys WatercolorPainting.com.
- A sheet of Arches cold press watercolor paper (140lb, size 12″ x 8″)
- HB or 2B pencil
- Kneaded eraser
- Ruler
- Painting palette for watercolor paints
- A container of water
- A towel or rag to rest brushes on
- Tissue or paper towels
- A credit card, or anything with a thin but strong plastic edge
Paints (Holbein Artists’ Watercolors)
- Lemon Yellow
- Auhttps://amzn.to/3SFwQ9breolin
- Cadmium Yellow Light
- Cadmium Yellow Orange
- Cadmium Red Purple
- Permanent Violet
- Greenish Yellow
- Sap Green
- Hooker’s Green
- Cadmium Green Deep
- Cerulean Blue
- Cobalt Blue Hue
- Ultramarine Deep
- Burnt Sienna
- Payne’s Gray
- Neutral Tint
Brushes
- Silver Brush Black Velvet: Jumbo Round mop brush (medium)
- Stratford & York Warwick Series: Round sable brush (size 6)
- Stratford & York Warwick Series: Round sable brush (size 8)
- Stratford & York Warwick Series: Round sable brush (size 12)
- Large flat brush with a clean edge
Step 1: Sketching The Scene
To start, use a ruler and pencil to draw a 1/2″ border around the edges of your paper, giving you a margin for any future framing you may get when your painting is done. This “window” will help determine what ends up inside your composition. Begin your composition sketch by lightly drawing a horizon line where the lake meets the sky, some shrubs on the right side of the bank, and a large tree in the mid- to bottom-left corner to serve as a foreground element. Complete the land on both sides of the lake by framing the water with a slight diagonal line, then add a forest in the background to increase the sense of depth in your sketch. Next, place a rowboat in the middle of the water near the foreground tree, paying attention to the placement of the surrounding foliage and the overall size of the lake. Add additional details such as the shapes of “windows” in the trees created by gaps in the branches, a pole in the water to tie the rowboat to, and the reflections of the boat and trees. Note that all the reflections should be mirror-images of their counterpart. One important tip to remember is that you’re trying to create shapes that are visually engaging and interesting, not drawing every single detail as realistically as possible. But when you’re satisfied with the sketch , you’re ready for the fun part: painting! Below is a close-up of Steve’s compositional sketch: 
As a general rule, Steve advises to paint from background to foreground, and from light to dark. This will help speed up the painting process while minimizing the chances of making mistakes. So begin by taking the Black Velvet mop brush and wetting the sky area with clean water. Then, mix a sky color on the palette using a diluted Cerulean Blue with a touch of Greenish Yellow, which will help set the mood of your painting. While the paper is still wet, gently brush in the paint with the size 12 round sable brush, leaving soft white streaks for clouds. Don’t forget to apply the paint within each of the “windows” in the trees, as gaps in the foliage will reveal the sky behind it.
Step 3: The Rowboat’s First Layer
Shift your focus to the rowboat, using the pencil to sketch in any missing details such as the boat’s bow, dividing lines for different colored stripes on the outside, and any important shadow or highlight shapes that will give structure and depth to the boat. As the light source is coming from above, the gunnels (i.e. the upper edge of a boat) and the seat slats inside must have a thickness to their edges, so make sure to draw them in. On the other hand, the outside and inside walls of the boat will be in shadow, so paint them with a diluted Ultramarine Deep mixed with a little Sap Green, making sure not to touch the seats or the gunnels. You can switch to the size 6 brush for the inside area, and be sure to use light brushstrokes as not to “overflow” the boat with blue.
Give the boat some space to dry, and start working on the trees. Remember that watercolor is a transparent medium, which is why it’s better to paint from light to dark as lighter colors are easily covered by darker ones. To create a fall-themed foliage with a golden tint, use the size 12 brush and mix Cadmium Yellow Light, Lemon Yellow, and Aureolin, then starting from the left, paint about a third of the forest while being careful to avoid painting over the “windows” in the trees. Work in sections as you’ll be using the variegated wash technique (a variation of the wet-in-wet technique) later on, which will only work while your paint is still wet. To do so, drop in a mixture of Cadmium Red Purple and Yellow Orange in the wet yellow paint, with a touch of Burnt Sienna to darken areas that have more shadow or areas that feel too bright. You can also mix a warm green color using Sap and Hooker’s Green with Burnt Sienna to tone down the green, and add it to your variegated wash to increase the variation of colors in the forest while adding a “late September” feeling. Additionally, try to create a structural shape within the trees each time you switch colors. Wiggling your brush to make leafy shapes or adding hints of leaves here and there will help.
Step-by-Step Watercolor: Lake Scene
I visited my mother last week at Alpine Lake, West Virginia, and while I was there spent a wonderfully relaxing couple of hours following the walking trail that meanders through the woods along the shoreline. There are so many pretty, sketch-worthy scenes, but I finally chose this one:
 |
| Stillman & Birn Zeta series sketchbook, 7″ x 7″ |
Sketching provides a great excuse to slow down and enjoy life. What could be better than to sit by a lake on a beautiful summer day just listening, watching, and painting?
Would you like to see a step-by-step of my sketching process? Well, blissed out and relaxed as I was that day at Alpine Lake, I actually had the presence of mind to snap some pictures as I worked on this page. I thought you’d enjoy seeing them. Here’s step 1…
 |
| Step 1 – Quick sketch of the scene |
I had a new toy to play with, a set of Koh-I-Noor “Magic Pencils”, so I used one of them to do my sketch. It gave me a soft variegated line that would easily blend into my watercolors later as I painted.
 |
| “Magic Pencils” by Koh-I-Noor. I used the second one from the top for my sketch. |
The lines are colorful yet subtle.
I painted the sky first, wet-on-dry since I didn’t want too much spreading of the color. I softened edges where needed with a damp brush.
 |
| Step 2 – First washes (sky and grass) |
The grass was a bright yellow-green, so I laid in some leaf green, olive green, and cadmium yellow light, allowing them to mingle on the paper. In the lower part of the page, I dropped some ultramarine blue into the wet paint.
In step 3, I began painting the masses of foliage, varying my greens to add interest. I also added the first indications of the dirt path and foreground grasses. The boulders received their first light and medium tone washes.
 |
| Step 3 – Began painting leafy foliage, path, grasses, and rocks |
I always think of this part of the process as being the awkward
adolescent stage of a painting. It’s hard to foresee a satisfactory outcome, and I’m usually thinking, “Augh, this looks so bad!” I try
not to get discouraged at this point, though, because I know things will
get better if I just keep plugging away at it.
In step 4, I defined the tree trunks, first with a light grey wash, then a darker one after the first had dried. I added some spattering in the tree foliage and painted the deep green undergrowth behind the tree trunks. The boulders received their first layer of shadows, and the path had some darker tones added to it. More texture was added to the foreground grasses with spattering from my paintbrush, a size 6 or 8 round.
 |
| Step 4 – Tree trunks, undergrowth, foliage spatters, rock shadows |
A lot happened between steps 4 and 5 – I painted the distant hills, began painting the water, added deeper shadows on the rocks and foreground foliage, and further defined some of the branches and leaves.
 |
| Step 5 – Add darker shadows, hills, grasses, and water |
Step 6 shows the final touches: trees on the distant shore and a few touches of darker shadows here and there.
 |
| Step 6 – Distant trees, spots of darkest color |
Total working time was about an hour and a half. I like the way this turned out using the colored pencil for the drawing, rather than my usual ink lines. It’s a looser, less defined look.
