Watercolour Demonstration 89STAGE 5 FOREGROUND HILL
The foreground hill is an important element to the painting as it gives a feeling of looking down from a higher viewpoint, further enhancing the
effect of aerial perspective. I paint the hill area with lighter mix of raw sienna with a touch of alizarin crimson, and then whilst this is still wet I charge
with a mix of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue with a touch of Australian red gold. I don’t want too much attention to this area as my focal area
is in the middle ground. Therefore I deliberately use muted colours to frame the foreground. So the first initial stages are now complete, the washes
are clean and already we have managed to create an impression of aerial perspective. This wash is critical to the success of the painting; it is really
a graded wash that has created the depth of the painting! I let the painting dry thoroughly.
STAGE 6 THE MOUNTAINS
As this painting is set looking into the light, the mountains are lighter and soft. In order to create this effect; I pre-wet the whole sky area with
clean water and then with a light mix of ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and raw sienna, I lay in the mountains area. It’s a very light wash
with muted cool colours. Then I strengthen this wash with more ultramarine and lay in the dark parts of the mountain towards the bottom. I
deliberately leave some of the previous lighter wash to suggest the distant mountains.