World Watercolor Month – day 11 – A busy scene if full of elements that must be simplified to work in a watercolour. Don’t get distracted by detail to soon.
I like to do an initial wash across the whole painting, allowing the colours to touch and mingle. It is quite a leap of faith for some people to see this in action. The painting at this point will look quite a mess!
Once dried and the colours have lightened I refer back to my original grey scale image and look for the next set of dark tones. I can apply these quickly to the painting using the original set of colours in my palette. The layering of colour builds the tone up.
My method then is to touch the paper three times in this way building up tone only where it is needed. My initial layers are left alone which creates a feeling of light and depth.
If colour becomes confusing – try creating a monochrome image using one colour. Don’t limit yourself to black! Try red’s, blues yellows and browns.
Contrast is your friend when it comes to watercolour.
Day 11 complete!
