Easy Tricks To Paint Skies, Water, Trees & Grasses In Watercolor

Materials I'm using, colours and alternative colours, can be found in the description below. Details about the sketch outline and the downloadable PDF with progress photographs can be found in the description below. Start off by painting the sky first, wet in wet. It's the largest area on the painting. I started off with a puddle of ultramarine and a pinch of red. And next, pyrrole red mixed with ultramarine about 50-50. Make sure you always mix big puddles so you don't have to start mixing halfway through painting your sky. I'm also mixing up a very dilute raw sienna wash. I'm wetting the paper with a large one inch flat brush. Take your time doing this. Allow the water to soak into the membranes of that paper. It will give you more time when you paint the sky wet into wet. And applying the raw sienna wash with a large round brush, size 12, around the horizon area, wet into wet, leaving gaps there as well. Next, I'm applying the mixture of the red with the blue there, wet into wet. Again, sort of leaving gaps. I'm using a large brush and I'm tilting as well, allowing the paint to flow. So I'm using the darker color first at the top. That's the ultramarine with a pinch of the red. And then I go towards the horizon. I will use the red mixed with the blue, slightly lighter in tonal value. And then I'll dilute that red mixed with blue as I go towards the horizon, making the color paler so it looks further away to create depth in my painting. This is all wet into wet. So the wetness of the paper is the same wetness as my brush there. If your brush is wetter, just take off the excess paint on a paper towel to keep the consistency the same. As you can see there, I'm using the tip of the brush to paint smaller marks as I go towards the horizon. There I'm tilting my painting now to allow the paint to flow, to look more natural and collect any puddles with a paper towel at the edge of the painting. While the painting is still wet, I am mixing up the raw sienna with the blue. I'm using my size six round brush and I'm painting trees in the distance there using the tip of the brush. So this is damp into damp. So you get soft edges when you paint damp but the paint doesn't flow as much as the wet in wet did in the sky area. But you get lovely, natural looking distant trees here. I'm varying the heights of the trees as well and also the colors, maybe a little bit more ultramarine, maybe a little bit more of the raw sienna. I've also added a pinch of red as well just to vary those colors. It doesn't have to look exactly like the photograph. The photograph is there as a reference for you. And I actually took this photograph myself and it is of a little park near Wandsworth Common. And I was just so attracted by that beautiful sky. I love skies like that for watercolor painting. So I'm actually painting around a little building here. Again, I've used artistic license. I've really simplified everything. So I'm painting now wet on dry using Hansa yellow light with a pinch of sap green. Using my size 12 round brush, I'm just painting this yellowy green here as a contrast as well to those distant trees. Always keep loading your brush with plenty of paint. It's almost like a blanket of grasses here. Mixing up a little bit more sap green now, about 50 50 with the Hansa yellow light, and I'm just painting wet on dry here. That sort of brighter green. I'm always trying to vary my colors. They're not all the same color, make them interesting. If you look at the photograph, there's so many different varieties of green. I'm mixing up Hansa yellow deep now with a pinch of that sap green just to create, again, another sort of earthy green here, a little bit more sap green, wet in wet to the right. As you notice, I'm working my way down. I start at the top of the sky, then the distant trees, now those sort of middle distant grasses. I'm mixing up quinacridone gold now with a pinch of that ultramarine. And again, I'm working my way down, wet on dry, but also wet in wet because it's catching that wash above. And I'm using my size eight round brush. I'm actually just painting wet on wet there to the middle and right. So we create sort of soft looking bushes there. Now, if you're starting out in watercolor painting, you might find this a little bit overwhelming to paint the whole thing like this. So I would suggest working smaller to start with and build up this sort of confidence in mixing washes and painting spontaneously in this way. So again, working my way down here, using the tip of the size eight brush, a little bit of ultramarine mixed with red, with a bit of sap green to paint this darker green. Again, wet into wet and just painting at the edge of the water there. I love any sort of landscape where there's a little bit of water and some reflection there. It just brings the painting to life. So I've got some lovely dark right at the sort of edge of the water there. Ultramarine with quinacridone gold. And I'm just using some of the sap green with the Hansa yellow light here as I work my way to the middle and to the right, varying my greens, varying the tonal values, having light and darker greens to create contrast and working wet into wet here as well. A little bit more of the sap green and just painting bigger marks now as I paint these taller grasses in the foreground, wet on dry, but pushing that color wet into wet to the green above. And using the tip of the brush to paint the grasses. You can see this is a lot bigger and this creates depth in your painting. The marks get bigger as they come towards you and you get more detail as well. So I'm sort of going up and down there to create those grasses there. So it's fun. So try to sort of vary the edges, top and bottom, so they look like grasses. A little bit more sap green with a pinch of the quinacridone gold. Again, I've changed the color and this is the foreground grasses, a little bit more Hansa yellow light there as well. I've added some water, a touch more sap green and Hansa yellow light, painting wet on dry on the left hand side there, using a larger brush as well. Large area, large brush. And just collecting a little bit of the ultramarine now with the quinacridone gold to create a darker wash, painting wet into wet and sweeping that dark color now into the foreground to bring that forward to sort of create almost like a frame in my painting, adding more dark to the left hand side there, wet into wet, building up the detail of the grasses using the ultramarine and quinacridone gold, pushing that wash into the wet wash beneath. But I'm painting using the tip of the brush, creating the top of the grasses there, wet on dry to the left hand side and then adding a few details there right at the bottom there. I feel like the water is the star of the show. So I really want to bring it out by framing it with these grasses. So I've added more ultramarine and quinacridone gold, slightly thicker to paint darks here, damp into wet. So the paint's slightly creamier there, so it doesn't run as much. I've mixed up the ultramarine, quinacridone gold here, painting wet on dry, but also damp into damp, connecting the grasses above with the grasses in the foreground there to fill that gap, mixing up ultramarine here with a pinch of the quinacridone gold, painting damp into damp with my size eight round brush to paint these lovely darks here in the foreground to have that contrast, using the tip of the brush as well to create the look of grasses as well, going up and down with my brush there. I'm sprinkling a little bit of salt now onto the damp surface in the foreground. This will absorb the watercolour paint and once dry will create some lovely light textures. I'm using my plastic card now to lift the paint. You can only really do this when the paint is damp. If the paint is wet, the paint will just run back in on itself. So just do a little bit of tester, maybe at the edge of the painting there to swipe to see if the paint will lift. If it doesn't, just wait a little bit longer. And I'll put a link to my plastic card tutorial in the description below, which will go into a lot more detail about this technique. But what it does, it just creates more texture and detail, especially in the foreground, which will create depth. So as you can see, I'm just lifting here, just swiping the paint to create these lighter marks. I'm using a watercolour pencil here. It's a dark sort of blue and it's just to create darker grasses. I thought it's quite a nice way of creating this detail using a watercolour pencil. Now, if you don't have a watercolour pencil, you can just use a small round brush to create detail grasses using Ultramarine with a pinch of Quinacridone Gold. But what happens is the pigment on the watercolour pencil gets diluted by the damp of the paper here. So I'm just sort of dotting and creating different textures here, having a bit of fun using the watercolour pencil. I've masked out the water area here and I'm just spattering on the edge here. Remember, this is the star of the show, and I really want to bring a lot of detail and interest here. So I'm spattering yellow and Ultramarine mixed with Quinacridone Gold with my size 6 brush. And I'm painting some thin grasses there using that Ultramarine and Quinacridone Gold on the water's edge and in the foreground. I am wetting the water now using my size 10 round brush and I'm mixing up here Burnt Sienna with the Ultramarine and Quinacridone Gold. So it's quite a dark, creamy wash. And I'm painting dark reflections, wet into wet here, just at the bottom of the grasses. A little bit more Ultramarine there. You can see how thick and creamy that is. And when you paint reflections, it just creates the magic of water, creates the illusion of water. So I'm painting horizontal lines, sort of broken lines to create the look of reflections. I'm using a slightly paler reflection for the further reflections there on the riverbank there. And then just adding the dark on top there, wet into wet using my size 6 round brush. Mixing up some more of the Ultramarine with the Quinacridone Gold and just painting the edge of the riverbank there, damp into damp. So you've got that real contrast between the land and the water. So I'm actually painting the bottom of the grasses here, damp into damp. And doing the same to the right of those grasses, more Ultramarine, more Quinacridone Gold and just painting damp into damp. This area of your painting could have dried by now. So this could be wet on dry, which is absolutely fine as well. So I'm just working my way along, dividing these foreground grasses with the middle ground grasses using this dark here, almost sectioning off different parts of your painting. So you've got your background, middle ground and foreground, and the foreground has all the details and textures using the salt, the watercolour pencil and those contrasting light and dark grasses. It's a good time now to allow the painting to dry naturally, to allow the salt to work. You can see it really has worked nicely in the foreground. And what I'm doing now is I'm painting using a Dilute Burnt Sienna here, some of the buildings in the distance. Keep it really loose. Don't sort of copy the photograph exactly because it will bring those buildings forward. I'm painting the middle distant trees here wet on dry with my size six brush with a mixture of Ultramarine and Hansa Yellow Light. Keep it really simple. I'm painting carefully around the buildings there wet on dry with my size six brush just to bring them out a little, not too much, but it just adds a little bit of detail on the horizon there. And I'm using the belly of the brush, the centre of the brush, and the brush is horizontal to the paper to create texture, side brush, dry brush. And to get the brush dry, just take the excess paint off on a paper towel. And I'm doing the same on the left here. Sort of almost scrubbing my brush, the middle of the brush against the dry textured paper. And I'm using Ultramarine with a pinch of the Quinacridone Gold and a little bit of Burnt Sienna just to warm the colours up, to bring those sort of bushes forward away from the distance. And I'm adding some grasses here wet on dry in the foreground using my size six brush, a little bit of detail there, stippling and creating these little plants and sort of wildflowers effect here. So this really brings that foreground forward, again, creating depth and interest and again frames that sort of area of water. So I'm adding a few darker grasses here, wet on dry, just building up the darks here gradually. And then I'm adding some dark reflections using the Ultramarine with a pinch of Quinacridone Gold. Again, horizontal broken lines there, wet on dry with my size six round brush. And this is on top of those reflections and it really creates depth in the water as well. And just again, painting wet on dry, horizontal marks, try to vary those marks as well, some sort of short, some a little bit longer and make sure they're all broken so you can see that underpainting coming through. There were a lot of bullrushes around the water area here. I'm using a little bit of Artistic License and I'm sort of putting them and framing them again around this water area. And I'm painting wet on dry using my size six brush, Burnt Sienna with a pinch of red and a pinch of Ultramarine. And again, just painting them on the right hand side here, varying the sizes as well, some a little bit smaller, some a bit longer to make them look more natural. But mixing up Ultramarine here, you can see the paint's quite thick and creamy, a little bit of Burnt Sienna. And I'm just painting some darks here to the left to separate the middle ground again from the foreground, creating some detail here, wet on dry, just stippling those marks along and just painting some darker grasses here using my liner brush. I'm painting the people now wet on dry. There's a little boy here or a little girl with a little red top. I've used Ultramarine Burnt Sienna for the head and for the trousers, keeping everything really simple. I'm using my liner brush just to paint this really small detail. Now, you don't have to put the people in, but it does bring the painting to life. And there were lots of people in the park that day, and as you can see, they are in the photograph. But keep them small. I put a little bit of cast shadow as well underneath the feet to ground them so they don't look like they're floating. Next, I'm going to paint the tree here and I've used Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. I'm using my liner brush, painting wet on dry, starting off with the trunk at the bottom and working my way up. And as you go to the smaller branches, just lift the brush a little bit so you get thinner, sort of almost lighter lines. And I'm just painting a little bit of detail at the bottom of the tree again to ground the tree as well. And just painting a little bit of detail on those smaller trees there, wet on dry. I'm also going to paint in some small tree trunks and some more dark green underneath those trees to ground them also. Mixing up a large puddle here of the sap green with a pinch of the Quinacridone Gold, I am sponging the tree. Now, if you don't have a sponge, you could use a scourer or the side of your brush, you could use dry brush. I'm just tapping the dry surface very gently over the top of the branches there. So this is my lighter wash and I want to be able to see those branches coming through. So less is more. So dipping my brush into the darker green, the Ultramarine with Quinacridone Gold, I'm tapping very gently, sort of underneath the foliage just here and there. Again, less is more. And I'm adding a few more little branches, pretty much wet on dry, using my liner brush with a mixture of the Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. I've mixed up some Hansa Yellow Light with a pinch of Sap Green. I'm painting or sponging this yellow green here to the right hand side, wet on dry, to paint these smaller, middle distant trees, getting the Ultramarine with the Quinacridone Gold and just tapping this color gently on top of that yellow green, wet into wet. I've decided to add a few more branches to the larger tree here, just to bring it to life a little bit more using my liner brush and using that Ultramarine mixed with Burnt Sienna. I'm just adding some details to the little houses here using Burnt Sienna now with a pinch of Ultramarine. I'm using the liner brush. I've outlined the roof and I've added windows wet on dry, painting some bushes in front of the house to push it back a little bit, using Quinacridone Gold with a pinch of Sap Green. I'm adding some details to this distant house here, just very little, outlining the roof and putting some bushes in front of that as well, wet on dry, using my liner brush. I've diluted the Sap Green and Quinacridone Gold and I'm just sort of smudging this area here and I'm using Ultramarine with a pinch of Burnt Sienna diluted to paint some shadows underneath the eaves and to the right hand side of the house. I'm adding some shadow to the right hand side of the people there as well because I've got the shadow to the right hand side. There isn't a lot of shadow in the photographs, I'm using Artistic License here to make the painting look a little bit more 3D, especially the buildings and the people. Just adding a few more details here, wet on dry to the grasses using my liner brush. So these are a few more details to bring your painting to life, to finish off the painting. It's easy to kind of lose the light here and put more washes on, but I just want to finesse just here and there using the Ultramarine and Quinacridone Gold, just adding very light branches to these trees on the right, not a lot, but just enough to create some detail and structure to those trees, just adding a little bit of shadow to the right hand side of this middle distant tree here using the Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna, a little bit more to the cast shadow as well. And I'm just finishing off with a spatter of white to add a little bit of sparkle in the foreground. If you have any questions about this tutorial, please put them in the comments section below. And if you would like to learn more about watercolour, get access to exclusive content, downloadable sketch outlines and more bonus content, why not think about joining my Patreon membership? Details about the membership can be found in the description below and don't hesitate to ask me any questions. Thank you so much for watching. Happy painting. Bye for now.