Rocks & Seascapes

Above I’ve been painting rocks for Maria Wigge’s Diving Deeper With Watercolors course. This was purposely a monochromatic study, focusing on getting a full range of tonal values, plus creating the 3D shapes of the rocks. More rocks/pebbles practice will continue. For this exercise I used just Payne’s Grey on Milford paper.

The layers exercise above was painted on Fabriano Artistico 140 lb rough paper. Colour used was Payne’s Grey. I painted the sky area first; then I worked on each layer of mountains, starting with the lightest (at the back) to the darkest at the front. It’s so important to let each layer dry completely before starting a new one. This was also a very simple lesson in aerial perspective – light cool tones recede into the background and warmer darker tones come forward. I will do another one of these exercises with different colours to illustrate this more fully.

A simple loose watercolour seascape, although it started out as sky practice for Maria Wigge’s Diving Deeper With Watercolors course. Colours used were Phthalo Blue Red Shade, Hansa Yellow Medium, Jane’s Grey and Buff Titanium. I created deliberate watermarks to depict the waves at the shore line; it’s a tricky, slightly unpredictable technique but one I love to do.

Another sky practice piece that turned into a little seascape. Colours used were Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Jane’s Grey and Buff Titanium. Both paintings above were painted on Arches NOT 140 lb paper.

When painting efforts don’t go to plan, it’s so easy to just throw them away. Instead I examine them first and see if there’s anything at all I like – usually there is something. Above is a mosaic of small squares cut out from work I didn’t like as a whole. Put all together they make a beautiful new piece of art. And each square may provide inspiration for a new larger piece of work. Happy painting… !