Painting the Fog Horn 

Start from drawing

Tape your paper to the board with masking tape.

Make a strong drawing. If you have weak drawing skills, you can make Division marks vertically and horizontally with a pencil on both your photo if you are using one, and your paper. Use LIGHT markings since you will want to remove these later. There is no need to erase your drawing though. You can use either a table to prop your board somewhat, or an upright easel.

Prepare for painting

Using a large Sea Sponge, wet the paper thoroughly. The paper should dry completely.

 

 

 

 

Begin painting

For this painting, I started painting the background first, using a #12 watercolor brush.

Remember that your White is the absence of pigment, you will leave the white paper showing.

I painted the strong colors first. I especially like Payne‚s Gray because it can be exceptionally dark as well as very light. Soft edges with the white paper showing create the mood of fog on the water: Here I used Payne‚s Gray, Violet, Prussian blue, and Ultra Marine Blue.

Test your paints from the darkest to lightest values with more and less water.

Be aware of "soft" and "Hard" edges. If you find hard edges in the "wrong" places, gently wet the edges only, to create soft and faded areas.

While painting, your paper may swell or bubble up, this is OK and the reason we need to tape the paper down. It will dry fairly flat. (More on this later.)

Painting in progress

To brighten the lightest value in the sky, I used Lemon Yellow Light with a good bit of water.

Then, paint inside the boat and both figures using Van Dyke Brown, Burnt Sienna, a bit of Alizerian Crimsian. To paint the outside of the boat, I used black along with the above pigments. At this point I use a #6 Kolinsky brush and#0 for the inside of the boat.

Painting water

I now painted the water with Colbalt Blue, Violet and Prussian and a small bit of Payne‚s Gray.

When the water area is totally dry, paint the reflections including the lines reflections, and the seaweed.

 

 

Last step

Hold the painting to the mirror to do your critique.

Finish the odds and ends and make certain all is painted. Sign your name.

 

This free lesson provided by Mary Churchill