Step-by-step plan

Boats on the beach

Watercolouring is painting with large amounts of water. The more water, the lighter the colour. Wherever colours are mixed in the step-by-step plan plenty of water is always added. Begin by filling in the lighter colours and leave unpainted the areas you eventually wanted to be white. You then work with increasingly dark colours.

Allowing work to dry thoroughly between stages (if necessary with the aid of a hair-dryer) prevents colours running into each other. Have you used too much paint? Soak up as much as possible with a clean, dry brush or tissue. Hold the brush more or less vertically when applying details and flatter when washing large areas. Hold the brush clean while working to avoid unwanted colour mixtures.

Before you start, go through all the stages.

What you need

Talens Art Creation watercolours set
Watercolour paper
Talens Art Creation set of brushes for watercolour
Pencil
Kneadable eraser to fade any lines or rub them out completely
Mixing tray or white plate onto which to mix the paint
Water for thinning paint and cleaning brushes during and after painting
Tissues or sponges for absorbing excess paint

Step 1

Lightly outline the drawing with pencil. Split up the sheet into three sections: sky, water and beach. Leave out the small details as this is not important until step four.

Step 2

Paint the sections with thinned watercolours. Use a lot of water. Use Ultramarine for the sky, Yellow ochre for the beach, and for the water Ultramarine mixed with Yellow ochre. Use bright colours for the boats. For shadows use purple by mixing Ultramarine with Alizarin Crimson.

Step 3

Make the sky more intense by painting several layers over one another. For the horizon use thinned paints as this suggests depth. Use Yellow ochre mixed with Yellow for the beach. For the sea use several shades of blue, e.g. mix Ultramarine with Yellow ochre, Chinese White and/or Scarlet.

Step 4

With a pencil draw the small details on the beach. Use warm colours (Scarlet, Yellow and blends of this) on the beach. Accentuate the mountains, the horizon, the movement of the water and the boats with unthinned paint. Intensify the colours here and there.

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