Watercolours for Beginners - Find Your Own Style

Create a thumbnail watercolour sketch.

Setting out the drawing and starting the painting process

Adding ink to your painting

Adding texture to the painting

Complete the final painting

The student will be able to choose what the painting will look like, after the thumbnail sketch process

Sketching the outline of the painting

Introducing the background & foreground

Painting in the trees

Adding the ink for definition

Introducing texture effects

Develop the on site sketch (or photograph) back in the studio into a thumb nail painting. Decide whether the sketch suggests a landscape or portrait final painting. Consider whether the final painting would better as a summer or winter scene. You could paint this stage in a single neutral colour to arrange light and dark more readily. Remember just because the sketch was done in a particular season does not mean you cannot change the time of year. I often sketch in the warm seasons and then paint in a winter setting, or vise versa. This phase is important because it takes a small loose sketch into a potential final painting, so it decides where the final painting will end up.

Creating the background

Adding the houses

More background added

Working on the foreground

Adding ink to define

Adding more to the foreground and background areas

Adding textural details

This is the stage where it all comes together, although of course you can still make changes if it doesn't look right. This is a very flexible medium so don't be afraid to make changes if you feel it is needed. Decide the colours you feel best express the scene, mix them in sufficient quantities in order to complete the painting without losing the effect(s)  Remember the watercolour techniques, adding them where you feel neccessary, this is a part of establishing your own style.