Watercolor Landscape Practice

• Purpose: 

  • To experiment, explore, and learn a variety of watercolor painting techniques;

  • To use knowledge of landscape strategies to create a final watercolor landscape

(Below: Practices for the final landscape painting.)

(Below: Reference photo & color mixing swatches.)

In my previous abstract paintings, it was difficult for me to layer the paint, giving the pieces a more airy look than desired for semi-realism in landscape painting. The darker colors in this photo of the bridge over the Royal River not only forced me to layer for depth, but layer multiple different colors, which I had a lot more fun experimenting with. The challenge with this was figuring out exactly which colors would pair well together to create the darker leaves. I used trial-and-error with different combinations and used my knowledge of complimentary colors to help, and ultimately found a good way to work, even though I didn't get to make a final painting.  The contrast between the darkest dark and the lightest light colors in this painting made  the process of finding workable colors a little more lengthy in general, especially with watercolors; I was much more used to mixing colors and testing contrasts with acrylics before our final unit. In my last watercolor practices, I learned much more about how the paint flows, and how I can manipulate this with a little extra water to create, specifically, the shadows on the water. Overall,  I really enjoyed this unit and hope I can work more with watercolors over the summer.