EPISODE 8 - WATERCOLOUR for Beginners - 'Creating a landscape in Watercolour'

1. EPISODE 1 - Creating a dilution chart
2. EPISODE 2 - Creating a Colour Chart
3. EPISODE 3 - Round Brush Techniques
4. EPISODE 4  - Flat & Fan Brush Techniques
5. EPISODE 5 - Glazing Techniques
6. EPISODE 6 - Masking & Resist Techniques
7. EPISODE 7 - Creating Watercolour Textures
8. EPISODE 8 - Creating a Landscape painting in Watercolour
   
   

Our final episode brings together all the techniques showcased over the last 7 episodes along with new techniques, to conclude with a final piece.

Ellie brings together all the techniques we have showcased over the 'Watercolour for Beginners' series, guiding you as you create your own landscape piece. You can of course choose any subject matter, applying as many techniques that you may need, picking and choosing our tips along the way.

Using our own branded products to explore their quality and versatility, Ellie has produced a gorgeous piece of work, referencing photographs of The Lake District, a place of natural beauty, close to her heart.

Before starting any project using the colour charts, dilution charts and watercolour technique investigation sheets will help you plan your painting. Use your photographs for inspiration but don't try to religiously copy them, create your own landscapes, this way you won't get too despondent if they don't look exactly like the same.

Using your photos for inspiration, create your own colour chart, deciding on what palette will best describe your scene. A limited palette will be easier than trying to use all the colours in the tin! If too many colours are used, your painting becomes 'muddy' and lacks that freshness of watercolour pigments. Your palette can be altered to represent any season i.e. light/bright tones for spring and summer, warmer earth tones for autumn, cooler tones for winter.

Most of the techniques used have been included in the videos for each of the episodes, wet-on-wet, liquid masking fluid for highlights or wax resist for adding texture, dry brush techniques to create bark texture and so on. We have also shown additional techniques of lifting off pigment with a soft tissue to create soft looking clouds and used kabab sticks for scratching into the wet paper to create organic lines, grasses, twigs and sticks. 

Dark pigments were lifted from the tree trunks using a cotton bud and clean water and rock salt was introduced to create texture. Small details were added using round brushes and the fan brush and a semi dry sponge was used to create the canopy of leaves for the trees. Working on a watercolour painting takes time and much patience, if you don't rush your painting and do enough preparatory work you will reap the rewards. 

Before beginning a large piece, it is vital to produce preparatory work, giving you the opportunity to explore the techniques, and composition you want to use within your final artwork.

Creating a watercolour painting is a little bit like a dance, moving forward with one step then backwards taking away colour with another step. Remembering to stay loose and relaxed will help you to achieve much, there are no mistakes, just happy accidents someone once said! and in your world you can paint anything! 

We hope you have enjoyed this series of Watercolour Wednesday's as we have loved creating it!

Please do share your artwork with us on our social media

All products used are available online for delivery straight to your doorstep.

Below are the links to all the products we have used within this series.

Products used in this series:

ARTdiscount Watercolour Sets

ARTdiscount artists value brushes-Round

ARTdiscount Artists Value Brushes-Flat

ARTdiscount Bristle Brushes- Fan

ARTdiscount Watercolour Paper

ARTdiscount Masking Fluid

Jakar Artists Natural Sea Sponges

Frisk Magic Watercolour Sponge Eraser