Deb Ward, GWS, OWS, PWS, WSI - WATERCOLOR/WATER MEDIA - My passion is teaching adult “beginners”. Weekly classes in my home; workshops; classes for Cincinnati Recreation Commission. My work is nationally recognized and published - see “Featured” on my sidebar. I’m a Signature Member of Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana state Watercolor Societies, Cincinnati Art Club, past-President of Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society. Contact info below under “Class Information”

Friday, March 4, 2011

NOT JUST FOR NEWBIES* - WATERCOLOR PENCIL LIGHTHOUSE DEMO – 4

Next, the beach and trees.

I used some yellow and some raw sienna for the base color, coloring them over each other. Then I wet a brush and painted water over the sand area.


To create a “sand” effect, I took a wet toothbrush and rubbed it over the tip of the w/c pencil to pick up some color, and then “spritzed” it onto the paper over the sand area.
*Newbie Alert – I hold the toothbrush with my 4 fingers on top, and use my thumb to pull against the bristles, which causes the paint to spray off the brush. You will want to practice doing this until you get the hang of it.
You also don’t want to hold the toothbrush directly over the painting or you can get big “globs” of water-y paint to fall onto your painting. Instead, hold your painting up at an angle and hold the toothbrush in front of it; the spray will go onto the painting and any water-y globs will drip harmlessly onto the table.

As you can see, I got some “overspray” onto the grassy area, which didn’t bother me since that will be painted later.
To protect your painting, you can hold your hand over the area you want to keep clean, or use some pieces of scrap paper or even tissues to cover up any area you don’t want sprayed.


Now I’m working on the trees. Obviously, I already added water to the right tree. Below you will see the left tree as I’m adding the water.
*Newbie Alert – use whatever size brush you feel comfortable using for the area you are working on. I used a 1 in. flat brush to paint in the sky and beach, but this round brush is good for the smaller tree area. I will usually rub the round brush in a circular motion for trees, but will stroke the flat brush back and forth for larger areas.






The trees completed – for now!

6 comments:

William Cook said...

Hi Deb. Thanks for dropping by my blog, and for responding to my comment! This step by step tutorial of yours is so fascinating, as are other similar watercolor tutorials I've been finding on these blogs. I have a long distinguished history of watercolor scaring me to death. The closest I ever came was with Richart in transparent watered down layers. But this pencil thing is too cool--more like what I'm used to. That lighthouse piece is shaping up well. I'm following with great interest. I like "save the shavings". Nice!

\\///\

Carol Blackburn said...

Shaping up nicely, Deb....I keep a set of watercolor pencils in my locker at work for slow nights. Unfortunately I haven't had any of those slow nights in order to be able to practice with them. I think they are fun to work with.

debwardart said...

Carol, good idea! Hope you get more chances to work with the w/c pencils.

Gaylynn said...

Deb, I am following along and I even used your tape method for the lighthouse in my picture. You sky stayed transparent and mine did not. However, the pic I am using is more of a stormy look. Can't wait to see more. I promise to post mine when your tutorial is complete.

Prettypics123 said...

Great header art! Great blog.

debwardart said...

Gaylynn - I'll look forward to seeing that finished!
Levonne, thanks for stopping by - love your photos and inspirational ideas behind them.