Week 2 of Gentle Beginnings
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
This week we began moving from softness and flow into a little more structure and intention. We focused on value, brush control, shape, and wet-on-dry painting techniques while continuing to build confidence with watercolor.
One of our biggest focuses this week was understanding value. In watercolor, value refers to how light or dark a color appears. We used a very diluted tea like paint and slowly built darker values by adding additional layers over the top. To practice this, we painted simple mountain shapes and watched how one transparent layer over another gradually created more depth and dimension. This helped us see how watercolor builds softly and slowly rather than all at once.
We also explored wet-on-dry painting. Unlike wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry gives us more control over our brush strokes, edges, and shapes because we are painting onto dry paper. Brush control/pressure, water amount, and brush movement all affect the marks we create.
Using wet-on-dry, we practiced painting trees in a few different ways:
- Single trees with loose foliage
- Tree canopies made from several connected trees
- Tree trunks and ground textures underneath
Even though the paper itself was dry, we also noticed that within those painted shapes we could still use softer watercolor techniques like blending and feeding color while the paint remained wet inside the shape. This combination gave us both structure and softness at the same time.
To finish class, we combined everything we practiced into a small landscape by painting layered mountains, rolling hills, and groups of trees. This helped us begin thinking about how these techniques work together to create depth and atmosphere in a painting.
At-Home Practice 🌿
-Paint 5 simple trees using wet-on-dry, focusing on brush control and creating different shapes with your strokes.
-You can also for this week’s practice, continue building your landscape over the sky layer you painted previously. Add mountains, hills, or tree canopies using the wet-on-dry techniques we practiced in class and allow everything to dry completely before next week.
As you practice, remember:
- Work in light layers first
- Allow the water to do some of the work
- Focus more on shape and value than tiny details
- Try not to overwork your brush strokes
Every layer you add is helping you better understand the balance between water, pigment, and control.
For Next Week 🌼
Please come to class with your landscape painting updated and fully dry so we can begin adding our third layer together next week.
I’m so excited to continue watching these paintings grow and evolve with each layer.
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