Another Way to Create Rocks

    This entry was originally posted on Thursday, August 9, 2012

Another way to make rocks in watercolor is to use a palette knife.

For the above rocks, I used French Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and Permanent Alizarin Crimson in a thick mixture.

While still wet (but not too wet) I scraped parts of the paint away with the palette knife.

Defining Rocks

   This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Once you have used saran wrap to create rocks, you can define them further by using a darker mix of French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna. 

It helps to use the dark lines that the saran wrap left behind to create the rocks. 

Rocks in Watercolor

  This entry was originally posted on Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Here is an easy and simple way to create rocks in watercolor.

I prefer to use French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna.

This is because they both granulate nicely and I like the push and pull that these 2 colors have with each other.

They also make a wonderful gray.

 

First put down the color where you want the rocks.

 

While it is still wet, put down a piece of saran wrap.

 

Let it dry. Then lift.

 

 

Now you have the beginnings of your rocks.

More Stamping

  This entry was originally posted on Monday, August 6, 2012

Stamping is also a great way to create trees.

Instead of scratch away grass, scratch away some tree shapes.

 

Add some paint to the stamp and start stamping!

 

Spritz with some water and you have a forest of trees.

Stamping

  This entry was originally posted on Saturday, August 4, 2012

Stamping is a great way to paint.

Stamping can be used when creating grass which is what I did in the above painting.

And you don't have to paint every single blade of grass.

To stamp grass, you will need to make your own stamp out of illustration or matte board.

First cut out a small square of the board, then use an x-acto knife to scratch in some grass like blades.

 

I also use a piece of tape on the back to make a handle for the stamp. 

Now you put paint on the stamp and add it to your painting. 

 

Spritz the stamp with some water so it doesn't look so contrived.

 

Now you can go paint a whole meadow with just one stamp.

 

Atmospheric Perspective

 This entry was originally posted on Saturday July 28, 2012

Atmospheric Perspective, also called Aerial Perspective,

is the phenomenon that far away objects start to fade as they take on atmospheric colors.

An object will lose color saturation as gets further away from the viewer.

Thus it becomes more of a blue grey and lighter in value.

This is most easily seen and represented in photos and paintings of mountains and islands.

However, it is also important to remember this in all of your paintings. 

To indicate distance within a still life or even a portrait, the further back an object is, it will take on a blue grey tone.

More Sponging

  This entry was originally posted on Friday, June 15, 2012

Another way to break up the look of the sponge is to spray the paint while it is still wet.

This will cause some areas to merge and become soft.

Sponging Trees

 This entry was originally posted on Thursday, June 14, 2012

Another way to create foliage is with a natural sea sponge.

 

This is the most common way for creating foliage but to be honest, it is not my favorite.

Perhaps it is because quite often it looks contrived.

It becomes the same pattern of leaves over and over again.

 To avoid this look of everything being the same, turn your sponge different ways and use different sides of it when applying the paint.

This will help in making different patterns of leaves and foliage.

Fun Foliage

  This entry was originally posted on Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Creating foliage and leaves can be fun and there are several ways to do it.

My favorite way is to splatter paint.

Load up your brush with different colors.

And tap it against another brush or stick.

Be sure to get close enough to your paper that it lands on the paper!

Also protect the areas that you do not want to get splattered and messy.

This technique is also best when done wet-in-wet with different colors of foliage.

Uplands

14x20"

Creating Distance in Grass

  This entry was originally posted on Thursday, June 7, 2012

Homestead

7x10.5"

 

When creating the sense of distance with grass,

remember that things up closer will appear larger.

 

The grass up close will be longer and taller. The strokes of grass will get smaller and smaller the further back it goes.

Eventually, it will just become color without any strokes.

Creating Light Grass

 This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, June 6, 2012

 

When trying to create lighter grass, it is sometimes easier to think of making it by painting dark grass instead.

Load up your fan brush with dark paint and stroke it into the lighter areas.

This especially works well when bringing it in from a shadow area.