Charles Evans Art

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Thrunton Watercolour Pencils

STAGE BY STAGE

Now getting slightly more difficult, a big hilly scene in the heart of Northumberland, which is of course is an artist's paradise.

Essential Supplies

The items you will need to complete this scene are as follows:-

Watercolour Paint

Watercolour Pencil x24

Brushes

No.8 Round

Firstly, a very simple outline drawing but not so simple as before, even so, just an outline. As usual I use my cool grey and all I’m doing is mapping out the different shapes of hills marking out the tracks and woodlands in the middle distance. Then again time for colouring in.

For the far distance I am going to make a bit of a light green but instead of using a readymade green I have gone on with a very light swath of my purple-grey on the top part of these distant hills, then stroked in with some coeruleum blue in the rest of the hill, and then a tiny touch of lemon yellow here and there amongst it.

Coming slightly further forward for the middle distance gauzy areas I have used my light red and a few strokes of Vandyke brown here and there amongst it. Notice I have brought this colour mix further forward to create the clearer areas amongst the plantation forests. Speaking of which, for the plantation forests I have used Hooker's green for the nearest one, and a little bit of viridian (hue) as it goes slightly further away. I also used Hooker's green for the big lump on the left-hand side, making it nice and dark, pressing on hard. And again a little bit of my purple- grey in amongst this green so that when I stroke over with the water, it is going to make this hill really dark behind the more foreground rocks. Hence pushing the rocks further forward.

For the immediate foreground, get a load of colours whacked on. I scribbled on with some light red, nice and strong, a bit of Vandyke brown here and there, and a few touches of yellow ochre good and strong on the top line to catch a little bit of light.

For the rocks I used firstly cool grey for the light bits on the top, followed by black for the darker areas. I also stroked very lightly over the path using the side of the pencil with cool grey.

And now it's time to stick that sky on. For this I am using a little bit of French ultramarine blue and again taking the colour off the pencil with my wet brush.

Once I put my ultramarine blue on, I started stroking a little bit of light red into the base of the sky areas, and with a touch of indigo add a few clouds.

Now once the sky is dry I started to stroke over the far distance hills with a wet brush, merging those colours together, creating a light gentle bluey-green. Now with the tip of my No.8 round brush I’m simply taking off a little blue-grey from the pencil and adding a few lumps, bumps and squiggly lines here and there, which helps to create the feeling of distant woodland fields etc.

Then wetting in to the middle distance gauze, brown reddy areas. You may notice here and there that as I wet these areas that I leave a few tiny touches of colour without water, just for a few sharper touches here and there.

And again moving onwards to those plantation forests, or in this case big green lumps. Notice at this stage that the big flat green lumps that I drew for the plantation, that by tapping on as I wet the paint I am breaking up these sharp edges of the blocks and so giving it a more wooded feel.

Now coming further forward into the big dark hill coming out on the left-hand side.

Now into the foreground areas, but still very simply the same process, wet it all, but this time kind of stippling on with my No.8 round brush to give it a rougher texture and effect. On the rocks I am leaving the top parts un-wet, so as to capture light on the rocks.