MATERIALS
• Paper: I generally use Arches 300gsm NOT paper, taped to a craftwood board using good quality (Painter’s) masking tape. (I do not stretch the paper unless I am going to do a very wet-in-wet painting.) Good paper is essential.
• Brushes: The best you can afford. I now have two Winsor and Newton Pure Squirrel Mops sizes 6 and 4; Alvaro Castaonet NEEF 4400 No. 8. I find I can do almost all my paintings with these three brushes. Prior to this I used Taklon and hair brushes and a Hake brush. Sizes 12, 8, 6 and a Rigger sufficed.
• Pigments: I use a variety of brands, primarily Sennelier and Winsor and Newton tubes. I squeeze out into a large deepwell palette which I spray lightly using a fine spray water-filled bottle with a couple of drops of glycerine added. Keep palette covered when not in use.
Palette:
• Cadmium Yellow Light
• Cadmium Yellow Deep
• Raw Sienna
• Burnt Sienna
• Burnt Umber
• Paynes Grey
• Sap Green
• Perylene Green
• Cobalt Blue Masking fluid
• Tissues
• 2 water pots
• Bank paper
On a sheet of Bank paper (similar to copy paper) the same size as my intended painting, I do a simple line drawing.
STEP ONE
I trace the drawing lightly on to my watercolour paper. Tracing eliminates erasing any pencil lines on the watercolour paper, which can damage the paper’s surface.
STEP TWO
Apply masking fluid to retain the foliage areas of the trees. Allow to dry thoroughly.
Dampen the areas to be painted first – sky: Cobalt wash, add a small amount of Paynes Grey to the lowest line. Grassed area: Perylene Green and Sap Green, distinguishing different areas for the two.
Use a very weak Raw Sienna to the right of the foreground tree butt. Allow to dry. Remove masking fluid from the foliage area of the trees.
STEP THREE
Strengthen foreground greens with a slightly darker pigment (less water) using your brush in strokes that are indicative of how the grass grows. Apply a pale wash of Cadmium Yellow to the sunlit areas of the tree foliage. Allow to dry and then apply a pale Perylene/Sap mix over some of the previous wash and in new areas of foliage, REMEMBERING TO LEAVE SOME WHITE GAPS for branches and twigs.
STEP 3A
Begin painting tree trunks (dry paper) using premixed variations of browns (Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, and Burnt Umber), keeping them separate in some areas and allowing them to blend in others. Mix pale grey for distant trees and for the right side of the foreground tree. Apply, leaving some white, and allow to dry.
STEP FOUR
Build up layers using same colour mixes. (Tree detail.)
STEP FIVE
Continue layering remaining trees using same brown and grey mixes and using pale Raw Sienna for light trunks.
STEP SIX
On dry paper, start painting in darker branches in the foreground and continue to layer, varying as you go until you are happy with the depth of colour.
FINAL STEP
Add foreground sapling leaves and adjust tones to all areas using the original mixes. Of particular importance is the use of Cadmium Yellow washes to the sunlit tree foliage and to ‘ground the tree trunks.
