Spring water (watercolor painting)

Hi my friends!

Spring is the best time to paint watercolor landscapes, I think.

Whether it's sunny or overcast, the view is consistently attractive, pastel with some contrasting details.

In my collection of spring photos, there was such a shot from a spring river

My materials for work are a set of watercolors, three synthetic brushes and Canson watercolor paper.

And yes, I also need usual plastic card

I modified it a little to make it look more attractive for a watercolor painting and got to work

I mix ultramarine and ocher to set the main tone of the picture.

The sky and water are about the same color.

In the water area, I add cobalt blue to make the color slightly different.

Here I am using a large brush.

For the mountains, I mix cobalt, ultramarine and red ocher, make a horizontal stroke with a brush, then take a plastic card and use its edge to make diagonal strokes from top to bottom.

It turns out the structure of the mountains, where snow has been preserved in some areas

With a mix of cobalt and red ocher, I paint a group of trees in the middle ground.

The tops of the crowns are more blue, and closer to the ground are warm shades.

I make the shadows under the trees very dark, with a mix of ultramarine and burnt umber

While the paper is still damp, I draw distant trees and houses on the far shore.

They are very far away and I do not need clear silhouettes, let everything blur.

For trees I take the same mix of cobalt and red ocher, highly diluted with water, and for houses - ocher, burnt sienna, carmine and ultramarine

I add dark tones to distant trees closer to the roots.

Cotton paper allows you to make multilayer glazing.

Then, with a mix of cobalt and red ocher, using a medium brush, I make horizontal strokes, imitating glimpses of water from under the ice.

In some places I draw reflections from trees and houses

Here I designate the area of the near coast

Before the paper is dry, I apply another artistic technique: with the sharp back end of a small brush, I scratch the area of distant trees to create texture.

This looks very interesting!

Now it's time to do the foreground!

I mix yellow and red ocher to paint the branches.

This is the closest plan to the viewer, so I paint them with warm colors.

And when the paper is completely dry, I take a small brush and paint windows and chimneys in houses with burnt umber.

And with the previously used mixtures, I draw shadows and trees next to the houses.

I also enhance the shadows from nearby ice floes and on the trees in the foreground

The picture is almost ready!

I am correcting the reflections from the trees in the water, in some places amplifying the shadows on the slopes of the mountains and also adding birds to the nearby ice floe and in the sky.

How do you like this fresh breath of spring?

With Love...