Saturday, March 23, 2013

Blue Ridge Mountain Road Watercolor

Road in The Blue Ridge Mountains 


Here is a painting I did in watercolor of one of the roads in the blue ridge mountains.

I did it with a lot of washes at first using a wet into wet technique. The background mountains and hills were wash and almost left alone at that point. I did a little darker green texturing in the hills to show the trees on the hills.

The fields were washed in yellow at first and when the that dried I went over it in greens to give the field texture but leaving some of the yellow to show through.

The trees were done with a wash and then texturing over the dry wash using a signature brush. This allows me to use the brush to draw the texture in. The and the forward fields were done the same way.

The road was a problem. At first I used small brushes to draw blue streaks across it but the picture was beginning to look too cold. I tried to add a layer of sienna brown to warm thins up but that looked too contrived, so I gave it a wash with panes gray. All this made it look too dark. I had to use clear water and a paper towel to lift out some of the color. It still looks dark but better and has a little balance between the bright greens and the cool  blues of the background.

I am very happy with this picture.