The demo today
Caroline chose a winter photo of a small brook and trees in quite dull mono tones.
She mixed a yellow quite watery and washed over the sky, she then mixed some purple with the yellow and blended the paint onto the paper, carefully leaving an eye catching,
White centre to emphasise the light.
Caroline then added an orange to the purple to cool the colour. She did a soft background of impression trees, banks at the side of the brook leaving lots of white gaps to give the look of snow and add light interest.
Still keeping to the purple and orange mix but creating a darker colour she pulled the paint through the damp background, making the paint bleed into the background, to form the trees, using a rigger and a larger brush, to soften the edge and give tone she brushed away the edge of the trunk and branches. She also had a small twig and scratched into the fresh paint to give a lovely texture. At this point the paper was not too wet or too dry, salt was added to give even more texture. One the trees had dried slightly darker tones can be added but still keeping the softness, dropping in darker tones on top so it bleeds in gives a misty effect. Caroline added a touch of red to the centre light to draw the eye.
For the bank in front, again a wet mix of purple/ orange/ red dropped in, flicked with the brush, allowing the paint to melt together, and more salt once it has dried slightly.
Going back to the trees, Caroline pulled darker colour through adding to the tones, again using a dry brush to soften the edges.
Keep looking at the picture make sure the light is kept and the dark tonal values emphasised. Allow the paint to fall from the lower tree trunk and give a reflection in the water, keep loose and allow the water colour to do what it does naturally when wet. Wiggling the brush to give a ripple look, use the dry brush to soften if too dark.
More colour, red, was added to catch eye in the centre. A lovely tonal winter scene using really just 3 colours purple/ blue yellow/orange and touch of red good colours which compliment each other.
