Saturday, January 9, 2010

Sunrise Watercolor






Start with these reference images:

This will be a wet into wet technique. Wet the entire paper with clean water. Starting at the top of the page use blue hues and then go into yellow. Do not mix a lot or your colors will turn green. Add red and yellow to make an orange; add a little ultramarine blue, alizeran crimson and cobalt blue to the bottom of the page. Using a paper towel, dap out the sun area. Let dry.
We are going to repeat the first process again but using more pigments, and this time your paper is dry. Go back in with a thirsty brush and pick up some colors for the reflection of the sun. Again dap out the area on the sun while the pigment is still wet. Let dry.
I wanted a little more yellow in the sky area, so I again went in and glazed over the previous wash. Let dry. Show the horizon line with a darker value, softening the edge on the bottom. Paint the trees and rocks in the foreground area, making the colors warmer near the light source (the sun). Show some motion in the water by adding darker values and keeping the edges soft. Show the tree branches on top by keeping the colors warmer near the sun and cooler as they recede. Add some foliage. Let dry.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great lesson. You make it look easy.
Thank you!