Take Three Colours

Watercolour Landscapes

Geoff Kersey

• Publisher: Search Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781781265147
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

This absolute beginner's guide to watercolour painting shows you how to create beautiful landscapes using basic, affordable materials. Geoff Kersey explains the fundamental principles of watecolour painting, demonstrating how first-time painters can achieve satisfying results with just three colours, three brushes, a plastic palette and a watercolour pad. Using inexpensive and easy-to-find paints—light red, cadmium yellow pale, and ultramarine blue—Geoff shows how nine realistic watercolour scenes can be painted. Starting from the simplest of scenes, Geoff builds skills through the series of projects. Start with a simple sky and progress through a basic scene with a reflected sunset, to landscapes that include simple buildings and even a figure. With clear advice and step-by-step photographs, this volume offers everything you need to get painting.

Valley Farm

What you learn:

• Painting hills

• Painting simple buildings

• Painting weathered stone

• Using a dry brush

• Painting fir trees

1Draw the lines for the edges of the picture area, then draw the scene. You can trace it from the finished painting on page 43 if you prefer (see page 64). Make a thin wash of blue and another thin wash of grey, from blue and red, then make a thicker, darker grey.

2Wet the sky area with a large brush and clean water. Go carefully round the buildings. Put in the sky with the large brush and the blue wash, then touch in some of the grey wash while this is wet.

3While the sky is wet, use the medium brush to paint distant trees on either side of the buildings with the darker grey. Allow to dry.

4Make more light grey and an orange from yellow and red. Start painting the distant hill from the top with the large brush and the light grey. Paint over the fir trees but go carefully round the building.

5Gradually introduce the orange mix lower down. Allow to dry.

6Paint the walls of the building with the large brush and an orange mix of yellow and red. Fade this with clear water where the fir trees will be.

7While the walls are wet, use the medium brush to paint a dark grey mix at the bottom of the building. Blend this in with a little more of the orange mix.

Tip

The soft effect created by painting a new colour into a wet background is useful here to suggest the weathered look of old stone.

8Make a light grey from blue and red and also a thick, dark brown. Use the medium brush with the light grey to paint shadow under the eaves on the left and the whole right-hand end of the building.

9Paint the doorway in the grey, then while this is wet, paint the darkest part with the dark brown.

10Mix a strong orange from red and yellow and paint the chimney with the medium brush. Use the small brush to paint the small window in the gable end wall and the chimney details. Allow to dry.

11Prepare washes for the roof: orange as for the walls, blue as for the sky and a green from yellow and blue for moss. Use the medium brush to paint the blue wash up to the fir trees, then while this...