Serene Watercolor Meadow - A Foggy Atmospheric Landscape

1. Introduction : Do you want to paint a soft, misty landscape that feels calm and grounding? Well, in this class, we will paint a serene watercolor meadow with gentle fog, layered greens, and a peaceful mood. It is a short beginner friendly session, perfect for slowing down and reconnecting with your paints and brushes. Hi, I'm Shanan Subhan. I'm an artist from Bangalore, India. I love painting landscapes with watercolors and gouache. To check out my artworks, you can visit my Instagram page Wakul. There I regularly share stories and posts related to art. In this class, I'll first walk you through all the art supplies needed. Then I'll show you the reference image and explain how I have broken it down into simpler elements. We will practice each element individually so that you feel confident during the painting process. Then we will begin our painting process by painting the base layer first and slowly building the distant background and layering step by step. From there, we will move into the meadow part, adding the flowers and the shadows, trying to create highlights and gradually shaping the scene. I'll also talk about the mood that I want to capture and at the end, we'll finish off the painting by adding the details. It is a simple and quick class designed to help you feel confident by the end of the painting. And I would encourage you to embrace your own creative journey. If this is something that excites you, come join me and let's paint this together. 2. Art Supplies: Let us discuss the art supplies that we need for this class. Let's start off by the brushes. First, we have silver Ato, golden taklon quill mob brush of size 80. This holds good amount of water. Next, we have a medium round size brush of size eight. This has pointed tip, and the next brush is silver velvet size two round brush. This is for detailing purpose. Next, let's talk about papers. I'll be using Chirput 270 GSM, 100% cotton paper. The texture of this paper is rough. You can see this has rough texture, which is really good for landscape artworks. Now let's talk about the colors. For the distant trees and sky, I'll be using pains gray, ultramarine and hookers green for the red meadow part, I'll be using crimson Pyrrole red, Bnciana and opera pink. For the shadow areas, I'll be using let, raw umber, and indigo. Then we would need masking tapes. I'll be using two different sizes of masking tapes. You can go ahead with any size that you have. If you don't want to use masking tape, that's also fine. Then we need two jars of water, one for cleaning the paints and other one to take clean water for the washes. Then we would need hair dryer to speed up the drying process. We need napkins or you could even use tissues for wiping off excess water of the brushes and the water spray or water mist for rewetting the paints and the paper. So that's about the supplies. Let us move on to the techniques part. 3. Techniques & Practice: In this chapter, we will focus on how to approach the painting step by step. I will show you the reference image that inspired this work. So instead of straightaway copying all the colors and the elements, my goal here is to simplify the scene into clear sections to create something similar with a bit of artistic freedom. So I'll quickly draw a thumbnail, drawing this slant line, dividing the land and the sky. Below this line, we will have the meadow and the grassy area. Above the line, I'll place the trees. Now, let us move on to the coloring part. So first I'll paint the sky with very diluted bluish color, keeping it soft. And then I'll add the misty trees. So in the reference image, the distant trees are slightly faint. But here, I'll try to exaggerate them so that we can create a sense of depth. Once this is done, we will then add second layer of midground trees to build a strong sense of layering in the background. Now, for the land or the grassy area, I'll use touches of brown right next to the darker midground area. And then we will paint the meadows. So while painting the meadows, I'll intentionally leave a few white gaps and drop in some red and blue colors. So here I'm trying to create a loose impression of texture. The trees and meadows will be painted in a rough, suggestive way rather than exact detailed replica. Remember, the goal here isn't perfection. It's about approaching each area one by one and building up the feeling of depth and atmosphere. Nextile paint, another layer of pine trees. This time, slightly darker color. So this is how we will approach the painting. Moving on, let us practice each section of the painting one by one. I'll start with the meadow part. So the meadow here has shades of red and pink, right? So I'm going to take mix of red, opera pink, and maybe burn Siana as well. So let's swash those colors. Have taken Bziana crimson, Pyrrole red, and opera pink. So I'll be mixing these four colors. I don't want to stick to just one color. If you don't have all these colors, it's fine. You can use one or two colors like red or crimson, or even burnt sienna. Okay. And the technique that I would be using for painting the meadow is wet on wet, which means we apply wet paints on wet paper. So let's start. Let me apply the water on the paper. Yeah, two more colors I want to introduce that is let and indigo. These are the few darker colors that I'm going to introduce inside the meadow part for the shadow areas. Okay, so I have wet the paper. Now I'm going to drop the paints. So this is just rough depiction. Even in the painting, I'll be going with the lose approach as well. Drop in the red brown colors that you have. Also leave some white spaces. I'm leaving white to show a sense of light inside the meadow. Next time dropping in some let and indigo to suggest the shadow areas. You could also splatter the paint using this technique. So once this area dries, we will add some details using wet on dry. Here, I'm applying wet paints on dry surface. Adding tiny lines on the flowers, not on all of them. A few here and there, just to give a sense of detail and sense of depth to the meadow. So that is how we approached the meadow in the painting. Now let us move on to the trees part. In this section, I'm going to show you how to paint the trees in the painting. Again, we are going to use wet on wet technique. So wet the paper thoroughly. Here we are going to build two layers. One is the distant faraway land or the trees, and then the midground trees. First, I'll paint the distant trees. You just have to apply vertical brush strokes like this. Since the paper is wet, the color spreads very well, creating a diffused effect. Have a tissue or a napkin handy so that you can wipe off the excess pains of your brush. Here we are trying to depict the faraway land. Now for the next layer, we will use slightly darker color again with same vertical brush strokes. The color for the background would be pains gray and hookers green. I'm mixing these two colors, creating a greenish gray color. Now, if you feel the edges are sharp, you could use a clean brush and blend it while it is still wet. We have the background ready. Now we will paint the tree using even darker color. I'll use raw umber for the grassy part. That is like dry grass or even the land part. I leave it up to the viewers interpretation. Even I couldn't understand if it is the pathway or the dry grass area. Suppose you are not aware of watercolor techniques like wet on wet and wet on dry. Here's how it is. We apply water. And then when we apply the paints, the paints get diffused and creates a blurry and soft appearance, whereas with wet on dry, we apply wet paints on dry surface. It gives us sharp and hard edges. I hope it is clear. Now, going back to our tree section, we will fully dry the area. Then I'll show you how we can add details on the trees and the ground part. Once the paints are dry, we will go back and add some details using wet on dry technique. This is just to create an impression of detailed effect on the elements of the painting. I'll be adding some details on a few of the trees in the painting to bring the attention of the viewer onto these trees and rest of the trees remains blood in the background. Oh. 4. Class Project - part 1: Okay, so let's begin our class project. The paper that I'm using is chirpet 270 GSM, 100% cotton paper, and it is of the size 11.5 by 7.5 " almost close to a four size. Okay, so now let's tap down the paper so that it stays intact during the painting process. So for the left and the right side, I'm going to tape it down using 1 " masking tip, and for the top and the bottom part, I'll tape it down using two inch water that is two inch masking tape. This is purely for the aesthetic purpose, nothing to do with the functionality. You can tape it down when any masking tape or even if you don't tape, that's totally fine. We are done securing the paper. Now let us start with the sketching. Before that, I hope you have watched the previous chapter where I explain how to break the reference image into simpler shapes and how to paint the different elements of the scene. I'll start by drawing a slant line. This is the area where the trees meet the land. Above this line, we have the trees, the misty area, the sky and below this line, we will be painting the grassy part and the meadows. So I'll roughly mark the shape of the tree. It doesn't have to be exactly like this. Just a rough depiction of where the branches are going to be placed. I'll draw another parallel line here. Now, let's start painting. First I'll take this mob brush. This is silver Atelio size 80 mob brush. I'm going to wet the entire paper because we'll be following wet on wet technique, right? So for that, we will wet the paper generously. Apply even coat of water. Make sure there are no pool or puddles of water on the surface of the paper. Now take your color palette, and let's start. I'm going to first paint the sky. For painting the sky, I'll be using ultramarine blue with a touch of pains gray, which is already there in my palette. That's why. You could use any color of your choice for the sky. It doesn't have to be this blue. So I am applying very diluted tone of ultramarine blue for the sky, leaving some tiny white gaps in between depicting the natural white clouds in the sky. Moving on, let us paint the distant misty trees. For that, let us mix paints gray, hookers green, and a little bit of ultramarine blue. So the aim here is to achieve a greenish gray. It's okay if you achieve cool or warm gray. Doesn't matter. Ideally, it should be cool because it is far from the viewpoint, right? Now, take a tissue or a napkin and keep it handy. We need it for wiping off the excess paint. Use the tip of the brush to paint these repeated vertical lines. This will depict the misty pines in the background. Also, use the belly of the brush to lift the paints and wipe it off on the napkin. You could also apply upward brushstroke motion to create the illusion of pine trees in the background. Both ways works fine. You can do whichever is comfortable to you. Next, we will mix slightly darker tonal value of the same color. That is the greenish gray color we mixed earlier. This time we need slightly darker color. We will introduce some darker tone in some areas to create this illusion of tonal variation. If you have ever seen a foggy view, you will notice how some areas are completely hidden in the mist while others peek through partially. That's the kind of effect we are aiming for here. It doesn't have to be the main focus of the painting. You can keep it simple if you like. But by adding just a touch of this tonal variation, we can create a beautiful sense of depth and atmosphere in the background. Use clean water to pull the paints down. This will create a soft misty effect. All right. Next, let us paint the second layer of trees. These are the midground trees. They are slightly closer than the previous layer. I'll first paint the basic shape. Then on top of the painted layer, I'm going to add the trees one by one. Do not take very thick paint. I I paint the pine tree in irregular sizes. And in between these trees, I'll simply add vertical lines as filler elements. I don't want to spend more time painting the trees individually with details because our paper is going to dry soon, so we'll have to hurry up, learn to paint in a loose manner. Don't chase perfection. Let go of that control and just go with the flow. Next, let us paint the brown patch of land between the meadow and the background trees. To be honest, I don't know if this is a pathway or a dry grassy patch of land. Either way, I'm just going to apply the paint and leave it up to the viewer's interpretation. Next I'm going to paint the meadow. So before that, I want to make sure that the bottom area is still wet. So I just apply, as in, I just pray some water to make sure it is still wet. Okay. Next, let us paint the meadow. I'm mixing my reddish color. Egg the paints in a medium size brush, and we will gently dab the paints, leaving some white gaps in between. If you look at the original reference image, it has a sort of darker vibe, but I didn't want to capture that kind of mood in the painting. I'm planning to achieve a kind of calm and refreshing vibe. I will try to leave some white gap between the brown and the red part. Since the paper is wet, the colors are spreading very easily. Take indigo and apply on the bottom part of the paper. This is for suggesting the shadow. Add some dots in the upper part as well. This will create a nice balance and contrast inside the meadow. We will also use some darker tonal value of red. Try not to overwork. You might feel tempted to add more red dot, but try to keep it minimal and also make sure to leave tiny white gap in between. Next, adding another layer of brown in the pathway. Note that my paper is still damp. If your paper has dried, you could spray water or leave it as it is. Next, let us paint the midground tree. We will be using a darker green color. I'll take paints gray and hookers green. Add a little bit of let as well. The paper is slightly damp, so I'm going to paint the branches and the foliage. Since it is wet, it is spreading very nicely. So you will get the fuller effect. You don't have to paint the detailed tree. Switching to my size two round brush for painting the tip of the tree. Once the paper dries, the tree is going to look much diffused and dull. I'll be adding another layer later on with wet on dry. Although the upper area of my paper has almost dried, but I'm still trying to paint the tip of the tree. The mid section is still damp. In the background area, I'm adding few pine trees to build a sense of perspective. The paper here has fully dried, so I'm still painting the tree, but on the lower end, I'm using my fingertip to smudge the area and blend it into the brown part. I'll add another tree on the left side. Next, we will take a strong or concentrated red color and we will be dabbing it on the damp surface of the meadow. The paper is slightly wet, so it won't spread that much. After this, we will leave it for drying and come back once the paper is fully dry. 5. Class Project - part 2: All right, the paper has completely dried. Now let us add some details on the meadow. So for the detailing part, I'm going to take the red color. So it's a mix of pyrol red and bidsiana and I'll be adding these random lines over the areas where I've added the dodge earlier, the red dodge. It is basically like second layer on the existing paint just to bring out the essence of the meadow. In the reference image, there were some particular flowers. I don't want to sit and add all the details. Instead of creating all the detailed work, I thought of leaving some suggestions of the flowers and to keep it loose. Next, take let or indigo and add some shadow lines in between. Towards the lowermost part of the meadow, we will be adding the bigger brass strokes and towards the center or the upper part of the meadow, we will keep the brass strokes short. Next, I'm going to cover the upper part of the painting to splatter some paint, take indigo or boil it in darker consistency and splatter the paints, something like this. So when you add these repeated brush strokes or splatters, try not to overwork it. Try and leave some base colors to pop. Next, let us add the detailing work on the tree. I am taking hookers green, paints gray, and a bit of let and I'll be adding some details on the tree, not entirely covering the tree, applying some br strokes on the existing painted foliage. This is simply to define the shape of the tree and enhance the overall appearance. This will also create a sense of separation from the background tree. When background trees appear diffused and blurry, this tree will stand out because it is slightly detailed. Um next, let us move on to the brown pathway or the grassy part. So here with darker brown color. I'm applying some random brush strokes. You could simply add some zig zag diagonal lines. This is for defining the grasses in this area. Now clean the brush and pull the paints down. Take let and add some in between the brown grasses. This is for adding contrast. I'll also add in between the meadow. When you're almost done with the painting, you could step back and have a look at the painting, see what is missing, what details you can add. Well Now, let us paint the birds. I'm using Pains gray for painting the birds. It's simply some V shape, an inverted V shape. I'll also darken the tree using pains gray. Uh Now using fine liner, take red and quickly apply some brush strokes. This will create a nice balance. We have darker color, we have lighter color, so I wanted to add some mid tones in between to bring in a sense of balance. M 6. Conclusion - Thank you: Alright, we are done. Let us peel off the masking tape and reveal the final look of the painting. I hope you enjoyed and had a fun learning session with me. There you go. This is how the painting looks like. If you like this class, please leave a review or feedback. Your support means a lot to me. Thank you. I'll see you soon. Bye.