I absolutely love reading Rachel Toll's blog posts, where she provides a step by step of how she achieves her beautiful watercolour paintings. When I first asked myself whether I could do something similar, I wasn't sure I could. I wasn't clear on my process; I'd never really considered it - I'd just get stuck in with paints and a blank canvas!
But then I started to think about it and realised there is a bit of a process there - so on my next painting, I thought I'd try to document the stages for you. Here it is...
If I'm working from a reference photo, I'll often sketch out the main outlines of the landscape on paper first, to start thinking about the layers of the view, as if I were layering up pieces of paper to recreate it. I generally think about it (and paint it) from the furthest away point to nearest.
I consider the proportions of the landscape that will work for the size and shape of the canvas. Once I'm happy with the layout, I do a light pencil sketch on the canvas of the main shapes and landscape structure.
I pick my colours next - sometimes for realism, sometimes not!
I use acrylic paints. I don’t premix them but rather combine them directly on the canvas.
A sketchbook close to hand can be helpful to check the colours compliment each other - although I err on the side of experimenting at this stage - the surprises are often worth the risk!
I start with the sky. Loose brush strokes and lots of paint! I'll introduce a thinnish white acrylic too, which loosens the other paints and brings out the colours (if you don't add too much).
I work quickly at this stage, mixing the paints directly on the canvas. The challenge is identifying the best moment to stop! If I overwork it, I can loose the movement and energy.
Next I lay down some undertones for the foreground - in this case the mountains. This stage is loose and pretty carefree. I check back to the reference photo to pick out the shadowy areas, but I might also lay down some bright highlights so there’s some pops of colour that shine through.
To keep these base colours true in the next stage, they need to dry out before you layer up the paints. In other words, this is a good time to make a cuppa!
The penultimate stage is probably my favourite. I move away from paintbrushes at this stage and take out the palette knives, silicon spatula and dough scraper. I pile up the paint on the tools and relish the texture. Squidging, spreading, scraping. Manipulating it to be thick in some places, thin or scraped back to reveal the base colours in others.
Sometimes I just add one colour at a time, other times a mixture. Having different colours on different sides of the tools can create some great effects.
Once again, the key is not to overwork it, to avoid the colours muddying each other.
The final stage is about stepping back and working out any tweaks needed. On this painting, I wasn't happy with the sky, so I went back and re-worked it a little.
Finally I scratch my initials into the paint while it's still wet!
If you've enjoyed reading this step by step, please drop me a comment below and share the link with others you think would enjoy it. Happy painting!
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