Your class project is to create a watercolor of a river in summertime using a limited color palette. Photo reference of the location is to the right ---->

MATERIALS:

1) 100% cotton cold pressed watercolor paper at 140 lb or 300 lb. Please note that the quality of paper drastically increases the effectiveness of the paint distribution. Having good paper is essential to a good watercolor painting! Arches is best but it is a bit expensive. More affordable paper such as Canson XL series (you can find at Walmart) There is also Arteza, Fabriano, or Stonehendge. Please avoid Strathmore as I have found it is the most difficult to work with.

2) Recommended brushes: 1 inch Flat, #8 calligraphy brush or round, #4 brush round, 00 Pointer brush or rigger line brush. Pointed rounds, flats, and mop brushes of various sizes also welcome.

3) Paint: Cadmium red, Alizarin crimson, burnt umber, yellow ocre, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue or thalo blue. Paint tubes can be expensive so feel free to get a paint set as these colors are all usually included. Bonus optional colors: Turquoise and quinacridone magenta.

Recommended paint brands: Cotman, Winsor&Newton, Daniel Smith, and Grumbacher. Or any tube of watercolor is preferable and easier to mix with than the dried pans of paint.

4) Tape. Blue painters tape, draftsman tape, or professional artists tape.

5) Paper towels.

6) Water jar or cup.

7) Watercolor palette for mixing.

8) Stapler for stretching paper. (optional)

9) 11x14 lightweight board or larger surface to tape down paper onto. Great for working wet on wet to move the paint around.

8) You! :)

STARTING YOUR PROJECT:

Always mix up your paints first! So often we want to start painting right away but often times we mess up a piece simply because we don’t have enough paint ready. Two minutes spent mixing your paint, in the beginning, can save you time and even the whole painting!

Sketch out the basic outlines of the trees and riverbed. This will help you orient where the background goes in relation to the river and foreground trees and grass.

Alternate doing a wash of the background tree greens & purples with the river light blues and green reflections. The purple is added as a complementary color to the green, making it look more vibrant. While one is drying work on the other section. Two layers for each section will do, remember to keep the tones medium to light as we want the darks to remain in the foreground.

It may take a few tries to do the river reflections. When in doubt, keep it simple. One or two layers at most, overworking it is the fastest way to ruin the reflective effect a river would give off. Let the water in the paint do the work in spreading the pigment around. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble, at the effect is beautiful.

Use a dark purple for the tree trunks and add a third layer of dots (leaves) to the top. Feel free to add a touch or two of other colors like burnt umber to the trunk for some variety and purples for the leaves. Just a touch though here and there. If you have your paper at an incline you can create an effect of sunlight on the leaves by doing a grouping of dots with a dark green then going back in after reloading your brush with light green to the tops of those initial grouping of dots. Example in the tutorial for the Foreground Foliage. Use a thin brush to draw in thin branches.

Use a wash of light green for the grass closely followed up by dropping dark dark green on top. Feel free to add a couple touches of dark purple in there too to switch things up. With a #4 pointed round or a rigger brush, touch the wet areas and drag upwards to create a long strand of grass. Repeat.

Let dry and sign your work. Remember to share the project! Thanks for joining the class. I'll see you on the next one.

Enjoyed the class? Here is another tutorial on how to do water with a sunset: Dramatic Sunset on a Lake tutorial

J Watson

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