Watercolor Tutorial: Painting a Landscape
5 min read
Nov 12, 2019
Christopher P Jones is the author of How to Read Paintings, an introduction to some of the most fascinating artworks in art history.
Christopher P Jones is the author of How to Read Paintings, an examination of art’s most enthralling images and their meanings.
I enjoy painting all types of subjects. Landscape painting is especially pleasurable because it encourages me to look so much more closely at the scenes around me. Finding the right subject matter is not always obvious at first, but after a bit of practice, suitable scenes for painting seem to jump out at me all the time.
I took this photograph whilst on a walk in a part of England known as the Peak District, a national park in the north of the country. The pathway winding to the stack of rocks at the top of the hill feels like an appealing subject to base a painting on.
Make a sketch first
As a useful exercise, I tend to make a quick pencil sketch of the scene before beginning the main painting. I only spend about 10 minutes on this, since the purpose is to roughly plot out the structure of the painting rather than get pulled in by the details.
The benefits of making a sketch are two-fold: firstly, it allows you to clearly define the structure and composition. In this painting, I’ve decided to follow the classic “rule of thirds” as it fitted well with the original photo: divide the picture into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) and place the points of interest along the lines and at the intersections.
Secondly, sketching helps to train your eye on the subject, improving your powers of observation and allowing you to explore the areas of the scene that may not be particularly obvious at first glance. For instance, when sketching out this scene, I realised there is a whole…
The Frugal Crafter Blog
Hi friends! The fall foliage is in full swing in Maine and we spent the weekend out in nature soaking up as much of the color as we can! I was inspired by the colors to create this watercolor tutorial for you.
I thought it was a great excuse to try out some new watercolors! Watch the video to see what I think of them and see my spooky new DIY paint palette;)
I am using the Schmincke Horadam Watercolor paints. I am using: Ultramarine, Brilliant Purple, Scarlet Red, Cadmium yellow light, Helio Cerulean and Burnt Sienna. I am also trying out the new ZEN dagger brushes from Royal & Langnickel I picked up this weekend.
Big thanks to sweet viewer Christiane who reached out to Schmincke on my behalf because she heard me talk about how I would love to try their Horadam watercolors. They generously sent me 12 tubes to test out. Thanks to you both!
I also received 6 other colors to try out. I was really impressed with the strength and granular properties of these paints. They reminded me a lot of Daniel Smith Watercolors. Here is a swatch so you can see the 12 colors I received. The big squares were a wet in wet wash and the darker squares are a glaze applied on top.
Pros:
Bright vivid colors
Unique characteristics from color to color, nice granulation in some
High Quality-Artist’s Grade
mixes well
Cons:
Price is higher than many brands
Some funny mixes, the ultramarine was PB15 + PB29 instead of just PB29 and Burnt Sienna was PR101+PBk9 instead of PR101 or PBr7
Harder to find than other brands in the USA
Paints take a long time to dry out in a palette, I would probably purchase pans in the future because I prefer to work from dry pigment
Bottom line, I recommend them, I have been a fan of Schmincke pastels (my favorite pastels actually) and their watercolors do not disappoint. I received these paints from Schmincke for the purpose of this review and I think I will probably purchase some others in the line, probably pans because the paint squeezed from tubes take a long time to dryout.
You can find out more about Schmincke paints on their website.
Reference photo by Shanna Leigh at Paint my Photo. https://pmp-art.com/shanna-leigh/gallery/165595/thy-happy-place (you might need to copy/paste the link, I am not sure why it won’t link.)
I took some foliage photos while out in the kayak Saturday, I hope you are in the mood for a few more fall landscape tutorials:) Thanks for spending some time with me today and til next time happy crafting!
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Hi friends! Thanks for the feedback on the photos yesterday. I had a big response to paint the porcelain doll pumpkins so that is what we will do. Check out this photo, I went outside to snap a pic in the natural light and my curious chickens had to sneak a peek LOL! Another funy chicken thing, some of the hens have begun laying over the past month and we are never sure who leaves the eggs in the coop. We let the chickens out each afternoon to free-range figuring they are like our old ones who laid eggs in the morning, well my son spotted something white behind the wood splitter in the wood shed today and there were 10 eggs in pile! I don’t know when they were laid, do you think they are OK to eat? Is there a way to tell? I hate to waste them but I don’t want anyone to get sick either, silly chickens.
Now on to the painting! I used my new Turner watercolors I got from Jerrys a couple weeks ago because I wanted to see how they worked after being dried in a palette and the paints were still semi moist and they preformed very well. I have to admit I was skeptical because the 18 set was on sale for under $30 but they are great, a solid value. I just wanted to let you know in case you were considering them. Disclosure: Jerry’s Artarama is a sponsor but they are not sponsoring this post. Now, let’s paint!
I hope you had fun with this. If you want orange or green pumpkins go for it! The drawing and painting skills are the same, just look for the value in the painting (the highlights and shading) and have fun with it! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Impressionist Watercolor Painting – Fall Landscape
Impressionist Watercolor Painting – Fall Landscape – Learn to paint an easy impressionist painting using cheap watercolors and paper. Autumn is colorful and we all love the warm colors, the parks fulls of leaves and the romantic rainy days. To capture the feeling of those comfy fall days, I painted today an impressionist watercolor painting featuring a fall landscape in the forest.
The materials I used are cheap ones and anyone can find them and afford them.
- watercolor pallet Staedtler
- watercolor paper block, A4 paper
- various brushes
- pencil for the sketch (optional)
- tape to keep the paper from curling
Starting from these materials, we begin drawing and painting our autumn painting in watercolors. We start by adding yellow to the center of the paper. From that point, we add orange, red, purple and blue, in this order. This way, we will try to create a gradient of warm colors that focus on the center.
Follow the video below, and add strokes of paint between the layers. Mix red and orange, or yellow and orange.
After creating this lovely colorful background, draw the trees. The ones that are in front of the yellow and orange should be lighter in color. Use for those, ocher and light brown. As you paint the trees to the sides of the paper, add more brown, black and blue. Also, make the shapes wider and bigger, since they are closer to the viewer.
To see the video, check below and subscribe to my YouTube channel to be the first one to see the painting lessons I will be publishing. And, for more impressionist paintings, see this post about my oil and acrylics impressionist paintings.
