"Sunset i", watercolour painting, 7.5 x 11"
SOLDI did two sunset demonstrations for my experienced beginner watercolour class this morning. This is the first one. It began by painting a graded wash over the entire sky area, lemon yellow at the horizon and grading through gamboge, to an orange made with gamboge and quinacridone rose and/or scarlet lake, and ending with pale thalo blue. Then the clouds were painted on top of the dry sky. Edges were softened and colour puddled to add interest to the clouds, and then the orange sky colour was painted at the horizon up to the bright yellow 'halo' beneath the lower cloud bank. Edges of the topmost cloud were lifted and yellow-orange to pink painted in the lifted area. The water was painted with a combination of phalo and ultramarine blues, then a damp brush with orange paint on it was placed in thin horizontal bands while the blue was still wet -this pushed the blue away and deposited the orange cleanly with no back runs. It is all in the control of the water on the brush compared to the amount of water on the paper, and takes lots of practice to get it right. (Too much water on the brush would lay too much paint down and it would swamp the blue -too little water on the brush (mixed with paint of course) and the blue would lift up into the brush load, mix with the orange and make a muddy neutral.) Lastly, the suns reflection was lifted in the lower water and orange painted in it. Of course there was lots of playing around with the cloud shapes to get them just right! Below is the photo reference -taken on Lake Superior one summer on our way to the cottage.
I will post the second demonstration, done in a different method tomorrow, so stay tuned. If you would like some great instruction in watercolours, please consider my "Watercolour Workshop" DVD -see the sidebar on the blog for more information and a preview.
Enjoy!
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