Rosas Water Colours

I would not touch that sky at all!

You are going to get a good reflection of the sky in the bottom left corner, make the most of that.

Do you know how to work out the position of the reflections?

 

thanks hb great advice will do that, didnt use blue as the picture showed up dark and as you can see total different shades of green to the left and right and i was not to happy with the outcome.As you can see i have brush strokes shown and i must admit am guilty of having the paint a bit thicker as i was always for years used to oil paints and the water colours are taking a little time to get used to and yours and dags advice is much appreciated, to learn the technique of water colours. thank you very much both of you for your input.

 

Dag i will leave the sky as i am happy with that its the river i,m not too happy with.
can do reflections but in this picture there is not alot of reflection in the river.

 

dag here is the picture

 

You have changed the point of perspective a bit, and for the better, I think, and it gives you the opportunity to make something of the water.

It needs changing, and that's ok because it will never look the same twice anyway.

Will generally look better if you can get a patch of the sky in to read against the reflections and it looks as if you have made the chance to do that.

If you work it out on how you have it now, the sky will just appear bottom left, and make that same as sky but just slightly darker.

Where the sky is not reflecting it will be generally grey of course because of the stonework on the buildings, but I would enhance the green reflections off the trees a bit more than in the photo. and also pick up the reflection of that red roof. So overall with the sky, red roof and greenery and stonework and patches of very dark shadows there is plenty to make the water interesting!

 

I agree - your sky is perfect and any more work on it will spoil it. Water is so hard to get smooth and shiny. Try to let the white of the paper shine through as that is the only way you can realy get the effect of transparency and light. The only other way is to use white body colour or poster paint on top, but that never looks right to me.

 

hb I did what you were saying and i stripped the paint from the river and started again, its much better getting there, I have never in my life spent so much time on a painting. left the sky as i,m pleased with that, you never know, I may get it it finished tonight with a bit of luck :D :D

 

this is another stage of durham cathedral

 

I don't know whether you are getting there or not, rosa, in your eye, as you know how much difficulty I had with my seascape. It's looking wonderful though so I can only say persevere.

I'm happier now that I have found a new style to paint in, albeit staying with my acrylics which I can build up on the canvas and get texture.

Keep going and you'll get there, Sweetie!

 

LoL know how you were feeling after this one its been an absolute nightmare to paint or should i say it is a nightmare, I feel like the mad artist sitting here :D :D

 

Much better Rosa and especially the water on the right. It shines! The rest of the water is so good too and the white water coming over the weir is wonderful.

I can't tell from your photo, but do you wet and stretch your paper first and tape it down? That is really essential for large size paper otherwise it curls up and you can never get a smooth wash. Are you using cartridge paper or heavier watercolour paper?

Watercolour is often regarded as something easier than oils etc, but in my experience - it is the most difficult of all.. But worth it because nothing is better than a good wtercolour. You are doing realy well - honest!

 

thanks hb getting there i,ve been on 13.1/2 hours with this painting, busy on with the green and trees, would you put a light wash right across the river water or would you just leave it the way it is,i,m not sure at this stage.
I did oils 25 years ago and to be honest i dont remember being on as long as this.

 

hb forgot to mention i dont stretch the paper and when it curls i clip it and it seems to straighten out, using heavy watercolour paper bought it on a pad of 30 for �£5.99 which i thought was an excellent buy.

 

I wouldn't touch the water until you have done everything else. The glare from white paper that you haven't yet started on can throw your eye out a bit and make the bits that you have painted look darker than they will look when finished. Now you know why I gave up on watercolour and went to something much easier - pastels

 

hb just finished the trees, just a few more little details to add and i think its finished, will put it up shortly, will leave the river and you can judge for yourself.