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Purpose:
To experiment, explore, and learn a variety of watercolor painting techniques;
To use knowledge of landscape strategies to create a final watercolor landscape;
First I began with a super rough, very light pencil sketch of the areas I needed to paint for both of my paintings. I then did a light wash of a dusky blue color for the area I had designated for the sky. After it dried, I then began to go in with darker shades of blue and more pigment for the dark clouds. I gradually painted in the shapes of clouds, drying in between layers with the blow-dryer. When I got frustrated with one side, I would work on the other. Once I had finished the sky, adding layers of paint and touches of yellows and reds until I was happy, I did a light gray-blue wash over the water. Once that dried, I went in with paynes gray and some blue at the top to give it some depth. After that dried, I went in with a yellow around the main body of water to reflect the color of the sky. I was very happy with how this turned out, so I tried my best to replicate it on the other side. I was insanely nervous to start the greenery and so I first did a test run on another sheet of paper to practice the patterns I wanted to do. After I felt comfortable with the shapes and colors, I layed down a green wash on both sides and blow-dried it. I then proceeded to layer leaf looking patterns and stems until I was happy with the amount of value I had. I did the same on the other side, albeit with a little less value. I then took the tape off from around the edges and signed my name, and I was finished.
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Before this project, I had only really played around with watercolors. This was really the first time that I had learned watercolor techniques, used watercolor paper, and set out on a real watercolor project. There were definitely a lot of things I had to learn, and you can clearly see the progression in my initial watercolor landscape practice versus my final watercolor painting. First of all, I learned to be patient with my painting. At first, I found it extremely difficult to be patient. Although I could easily dry my painting very quickly, I didn’t want to waste any time and would keep layering watercolor on top of wet watercolor. This caused my paper to buckle in spots and to just give it an overall muddy look. In my final, I was patient with it, and as a result, the colors were vivid and there was no buckling to be found. I also learned a lot about values and layering. Especially in my watercolor practice, I ended up making every single color that was not supposed to be dark, dark, and every single color that was supposed to be dark, light. Even with these issues, I still could not get a good sense of value and a real depth going, and so it ended up looking quite flat and uninteresting. In my final, I got good at keeping light areas, but also really darkening the areas that needed to be dark. I had a very nice depth going by the end of my painting and I was very happy with the amount of value I had. Finally, I learned a lot about color and how to use the colors available to me to the best of my ability. In my first practice, I didn’t really know how to utilize the colors given to me which is part of why it looked so flat. I had black and brown, a gray that was a mix between the two, and that was pretty much it. It looked muddy, boring, and I probably could have made many more colors than I did. In my final, I was able to create a plethora of different color combinations. This really enhanced my painting, and even though I only had around six colors, it looks like I have much more than that. Overall, I learned a lot about watercolor, and I’m glad I did because I had a lot of fun on this project.
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