Final Watercolor Landscape

Going into this, I could not tell if it was too simple. Obviously there is not a ton of crazy detail, but I think that the main part that drew my eye the most to the original reference photo was the sky and ocean. So, I focused a lot of my time and energy into those two aspects of my painting. I was able to practice the sky and the bridge, and test out how I was going to do them both on my other piece of paper, and I am so glad I did because it helped me figure out how much contrast I should use. Additionally, I took a lot of time to take note about the different shades of brown. The Golden Gate Bridge would normally be a reddish color, but from the shade of the painting, it appeared more dark copper. I wanted there to be a vast different in the color of the rock and the bridge, and I knew the rock in the middle of the ocean needed to be the darkest. So I mixed the colors and tested them out by painting them next to each other to make sure they looked okay and didn't blend together too much. I finished up my painting with some final ocean details, and finally decided to wrap it up. The picture is pretty simple, and I didn't want to overcomplicate it or add too much un-needed detail.

At the beginning of my watercolor painting, I think that I was not as aware of the colors. I spent an immense amount of time mixing the colors to try to match the original photo. I am very new to watercolor, and have never painted something this detailed with watercolor, so it was difficult to figure out how much paint I needed to get dark values. I started with a wash for the sky, let it dry, and kept layering on the wash with minimal pigment until I achieved the color that I was satisfied with. This technique was new to me, and worked very well. I learned that patience was key to success in this painting. Additionally, I learned how to take different painting techniques to a new level. The techniques that I used the most were wet and wet, and dry brush. For the sky, I used the “side only” technique. It was interesting and definitely educational and beneficial for me to look at the original painting and decide for me what techniques I think would work best for the specific thing that I was focusing on in the painting. Lastly, I was precise with the ocean waves and took into account the small things, like the texture of the rocks.