💧 WATER -ART - painting trees in fog - tutorial

Hi Steemians!
I am happy to share with you another tutorial made for our @water-art project. If you want to learn watercolor painting, I am sure our posts can be very useful for you!

Today I would like to give you some tips and go through the process of painting of this piece. I made a video too, so you can see it better.

This painting is a nice example of using the pale color transitions to create illusion of fog and sunrise. Then also combining it with sharp strong colors. It is not very complicated painting, so I think beginners can try it too.

Very important thing here is to use rather cold pressed paper, because we need the water to get into the paper slowly, without sharp edges while making transitions. I used for this painting new paper block by Nevskaya Palitra. It was quite cheap, so I wanted to try it and let you know my view on it.

It is 12 sheet watercolor block 300g/m2 in a size A3. I bought it for 2,45€. It is a very good price for a paper like this. Its color is cold white, which is something new for me, because I mostly work with paper in a light shades of yellow. The surface has structures, so it is more suitable for bigger paintings.

When I started to paint I realised the paper makes pillings faster than other brands, so you have to be careful with it and do not go over one place more times when it is still wet. However, good thing is when the pillings are already created, you can remove them easily after the paper dries and it is not very visible they were here. So, in conclusion, it is not high quality, but suitable for experiments and simple paintings.

Now let´s move to the painting. I painted according to a picture, which you can find here. I didn´t want to paint it exactly the same, just to try the technique and have fun :)

The process

💧 If you want, you can draw a sketch to make it easier, I just painted without it starting with the mountains behind. They are far away, so the color should be blue, maybe a little violet. Be sure to make the bottom confluent without sharp edges. Use enough water.

Also paint the background layer of a grass. Use bigger brush to make it quick.

💧 Once it dries let´s begin with the trees behind. It is more like a big stain in various colors. Use more water co the edges will not dry. First blue and then in the middle shades of or orange, yellow and violet. If you are scared of combining blue with yellow, use just orange and do not mix it too much on the paper. The colors should just touch each other and water will make the rest.

💧 The grass is made of short connected strokes, so you can use flat brush.

💧 When the trees behind are dry start with the first tree. It is more distant, so we can see just its outline and a piece of green leaves coming out frim the fog. It is very simple to paint it, just be sure your brush is wet enough and use only blue color. At the end add alsoa little green on one side and a little brown on trunk.

💧 It is simmilar with the second tree. Start with blue and then use green. For the right atmosphere yellow is a good choice for the top.

The shadows can be painted in brown, or darker blue.

💧 Some parts of the tree are not in fog, so we need to paint details. Some lops, fruit and highlights.

💧 At the end I usually use white acrylic paint for some details, highlights and so on. It is also good to look at the whole painting to see shortcommings. Everytime I have to add more color to some parts, or make sharper edges.

For a better look at the process check out the video.

 

Thanks for watching!

 
 

Interested in our project? Check out our posts on @water-art.