How to Paint a Watercolor Painting: A step by step Instruction.

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             Beginning Watercolor Painting

Finally, the first step is to have all your supplies

ready with pallet or board , paint, brushes, mixing tray,

paper towels, and a big plastic pitcher of water.

Supplies need:

90lb cold press watercolor paper /Can be found at Walmart.

rigger brush/ the small point paint brushes

Fan brush

one 1/2 inch flat brush

small sponge /they come in a package

your watercolor paint / in a palette

Masking tape

all these can be found at Walmart or hobby Lobby.

Find a nice board and tape your 90lb watercolor cold press paper to that board after wetting the paper.

Let Dry.

Here are the paint brushes only the one in the

middle should be a rigger the small pointed one.

Also your big glass or jug of water .

You are ready to begin.

Mix up your blue and brown with some green to get a paynes  black .
Use this on your paper to draw a horizon line in the
middle of the paper.
Then continue with drawing the trunk of your tree.

Make sure you use thin lines by barely touching the paper with the tip of your rigger brush,

Making a wash by mixing a dab of  Black and blue to

water ,will create a grey blue. Paint this on your

tree truck with your flat brush. This will spread with the

watery paint. Then paint the limb the same way.

While your tree dries, make another wash

with water and blue after you wash your paint

brush.

Then paint a couple of  vertical streaks under

your horizon line in the middle of the

paper.

Continue painting the sky with various sections of the blue

wash.  Let dry and go to the next step.

You will clean your flat  brush very good and mix a wash  of

yellow. One dab of yellow paint and a lot of water.

Paint a few patches in the sky Do not let them be so watery

that they bleed into the blue . That is why you wait for the

blue to dry. If this happens , take a paper towel and dab it.

Then paint with your flat brush yellow above the horizon line.

Clean your brush again and mix a green wash . Paint the bottom

of the paper a green wash for the river bank.

While letting your background dry wash your flat brush.

Now use your rigger the small pointed one and mix some

dark brown with a reddish brown.

You will paint this on the left side of your tree trunk and limb.

Lay down your rigger and take your small sponge to soak

up some of your brown paint.

Then add some of your paynes black that you mixed before to

create a few dark places with your rigger.

You will also go back and dab just a few small sections of

your tree with your sponge.

Do not worry if your lines look gone.  You can go back after

it dries and use your rigger again to repaint a light brown

line or leave it for effect.

The next part you will mix up your black by adding

raw umber ,blue and some green. Take your fan brush

and dab the black on top of the vertical  water line.

This needs to be a little water almost a wash. Then take your

fan brush clean it and wipe dry. Place it on the black and pull

the paint lightly, barely touching the paper with the tip of

your fan brush. If you feel you need to go back and wet the

fan brush to make the black lighter please do that ,and pull

your brush over the black again.

Take your fan brush with the black mixture of paint and dab

some areas of he sky . Sparingly will be good and the lighter

the mixture of paint the better.

Now place your fan brush in the water and get your sponge.

You will be dabbing the black and absorbing a little bit of

the paint. Do not over do it where you have no black left in the sky.

Take your flat brush  that is clean and mix orange with red.

Paint this mixture of red and orange in various places .Make

sure  you get some little limbs. These will be your berries.

Go back with your sponge and dab up some the excess of the

paint and let dry . Remember to not over dab and suck up all your

paint.

Now while the sky dries a little , take your clean fan brush and

make a wash with the mixture of black.  By barely touching 
the paper you can make some strokes of grass very light .

At the base of the

grass place just a timey bit of pressure and make it a little

darker. Now you have grass . LOL,let it dry.

With a dry sponge take your black mixture{ blue,

raw umber, phlato green}  This has to be a thicker mixture than
a wash.   Dab this on your tree limbs to

make texture. Don't over do it ,be stingy.

You can even go back and add dots on some of your limbs

with your rigger.
The secret is; don't over dab with your

sponge and black.
Notice I don't have very many sponge

marks.

Let it dry for at least 20 minutes .
Then mix up your red and orange and take your rigger brush and place small dots on your

painting. Especially down the limb lines. Looks more authentic

berryfull ,lol.

Last , to make this painting more cohesive with the top.

Take your rigger and some of your red mixture and paint

a little red lines  into you grass. Place your red at the base or

or middle of the grass.

Finally , this may have been a long process, but now

you understand and have the technique of a real watercolor

artist.  Let dry and hang. Oh let dry flat then hang. LOL

This can even be done with home school middle

or high school students.  

Creating Frameworks: Cr.11.7.9.8.10.11.12.5