I Paint watercolours
Before starting to paint, it is important
that your brush is full of paint
See how full the brush is. The paint drips.
Put the paint on simply,
Leaving space for the clouds.
If I rinse my brush
and pick up a little raw sienna
I paint underneath the edge of the sky
Just touching the edge, and keeping my brush on the paper
The edges will merge together creating the clouds.
It is important to keep the brush flat on the paper.
If you lift the brush, you will deposit water
and this will tend to cause run backs.
If I go back to the blue
I can create the lower edges of the clouds.
As I go towards the horizon
The clouds appear to become flatter.
We can add a little bit of landscape when it dries.
There is almost a suggestion of reflection here
So I will place a tree shape just above the reflection.
First I will mix a green
using viridian and burnt sienna
Use the brush in an upward motion
to achieve a broken edge.
Bring the tree wash down to a nice straight edge
Bring the wash out a little bit more and fade it to an edge
Maybe start another one over here
again using the side of the brush
Adding a little raw sienna varies the green
That is enough to suggest a body of water
If I now get some cobalt blue
and use it strong without much water
then I can get a dry brush effect on the water
Dry up the edges of washes
In the second demonstration I will use the blotting out method
This is a little easier for beginners
but not as controllable
Again use a mix of cobalt blue
but this time paint a flat wash with no spaces
With each stroke, pick up the bottom edge of the previous one
and continue working down the paper
adding extra water to the wash as you go
If you accidentally leave an occasional white space
DO NOT go back up into the wash
Take a damp tissue or other absorbent paper
and remove cloud shapes by blotting with the tissue.
The heavier you press, the lighter the clouds will be
Finally we will do a wet in wet sky
Wet the paper thoroughly
It is important that the paper is dripping wet - not just damp
Dry the brush
and using almost pure cobalt blue
Make random marks on the paper
Different colours can be used
Adding burnt sienna creates gray
If I rock the board backwards and forwards
you can see a sky develop
This is probably the easiest method for beginners
as long as the paper is REALLY wet
After drying we can introduce a headland
and create sea with drybrush
Use burnt sienna with a little cobalt to create sand
Finish with a darker line to suggest seaweed
Three different ways of creating a sunny sky
Enjoy your painting