Plein Air Postcard #2 Fields Pond Video Lecture - Master the Art of Watercolour

hi Marilyn Z here the frugal crafter
today I am going to demonstrate how to
paint this little scene I painted this
yesterday from my kayak on fields pond
in orange in Maine and I used this
little paint box which is one I don't
think I've used in this tutorial before
so we'll kind of go over that a little
bit and these are just my mixing cards
that I did this morning just to see what
sort of combinations I could get with
this little box of paints I know without
too much effort so here you'll see that
I have a lot of these are all two color
mixes so across the top and down the
sides are the colors as they come from
the palette and we have Windsor lemon
yellow ochre Windsor green which is kind
of like with the blue shade it's kind of
like a not quite a phthalo green it's
almost like a Viridian kind of
in-between in that area a phthalo blue
which is actually DaVinci because this
came with like a black and I scraped it
out and put that in ultramarine blue
burnt sienna a permanent rose and it's
like a CAD red I think it's actually
vermilion but it's a warm red anyway and
so here I just kind of this morning
while the kids are playing I just kind
of swatched out some of these colors
just to see what sort of combinations I
would get with two color mixes now here
on this painting you'll see that you
don't really see a lot of these colors
here it's because a lot of these are
like three or more color mixes because I
just was going for that really earthy
look so I'm gonna show you how to do
that today and hopefully that'll kind of
inspire you to maybe go out and do some
painting in the field as well and what I
used yesterday was a water brush and I
didn't have a paper towel or anything
with me so I was just pretty much wiping
my brush on my dress if I needed to and
this is the Pat the block that I made a
couple weeks ago almost to the end of
the paper and it worked really really
well
I also did one with hot pressed paper
but I find it that I don't like painting
and plein air with the hot press as much
as a cold press so there's that and
let's set that so you can see that and
you can see my palette and you can see
my paper and hopefully that works out
pretty well for everybody so the first
thing I did when I began was I threw
some color into the sky and I thought
the ultramarine blue
wasn't quite the right color I needed so
I also grabbed some of the of the
phthalo blue and just used it to kind of
neutralize the purple and the French
ultramarine just cuz it has a purple
bias and then I just put some in the sky
and I had kind of wispy clouds a day so
I just kind of left the wispy cloud area
squeezing a little bit tight a little
more water as I worked my way down and
what I like to add color to a sky I
added up to the top and let it kind of
wick through just so I don't end up with
with too much color now if you're gonna
go out and paint like in a kayak
especially you don't have a lot of room
to be fishing around your pockets for
things once you're out there you're
gonna tip over so what I like to do and
I'm just gonna pop something underneath
this because I was getting a little
glare there to do is like have a tiny
little box like this thing of postcards
and if I can fit it in a front pocket in
like a vast a fishing vest or something
that's what I'll do
so I don't have to try to reach into a
back pocket or reach behind me in the
kayak storage area to get that well I am
well in the water now I'll take some of
that color out a little bit of the green
the winds are green let me show you that
on its own again just so you kind of
know what I've got here for basic color
it's that right there you see that it's
not as vivid as a phthalo green but it's
not you know I don't think it's a
Verdean either it's just kind of it's a
it's a very fake looking green so you
gotta mix it with stuff and the water
had quite a bit of green in it because
there's so much so many things
reflecting in it so I'm just getting a
little bit of a horizon line and the
horizon is in the middle of the paper
but we're gonna Hills of trees and stuff
so you're not gonna see so much of that
and I'm just giving a little bit of this
down here not too much though because I
gotta put some rocks in and the next
thing I'm gonna do is the mountains in
the distance and someone take a little
more that green and take a little bit
the ultramarine blue so doesn't get too
bright I'm gonna grab some yellow ochre
I think I just kind of want a very dull
cool green grayish green here and I'm
just gonna throw this up here
do you do well burnt sienna and
ultramarine and so you see I'm using so
many complex mixes here but it's not
getting muddy because I'm using an
artist quality paint I don't have a lot
of the Windsor Newton artist quality I
prefer the pans but my local stores
don't sell the pans unless you're buying
them in sets and then you're stuck with
whatever the sets have in them so and
that's pretty typical in America that
that's that's how I think people will
just prefer the paints and the tubes but
once you're doing tubes I find don't
rewetting other brands so I don't really
care for the tubes that much but I do
enjoy their pans so now I want to make
some earthy or greens I'm gonna use some
of the lemon we used to be um yellow
ochre and I will grab a little bit that
green that we already have those are
kind of pretty colors and I'm gonna
start throwing in some trees over here
kind of hit or miss I don't want to I
don't want to uh fill everything in this
isn't going to be really detailed cuts
really far away some brighter greens now
I'm not doing it exactly the way my
sketch was I'm kind of almost trying to
remember the the feeling of it I took my
daughter out she had her own kayak and
she had some painting supplies didn't
she at one point she says mama I don't
have a credit card scraper I could not
paint that I was like oh she's so much
child like well honey you're gonna have
to do without the credit card scraper
sweetie and I can't pass you anything
for my kayak because I'm probably gonna
tip over if I do that just kind of let
the colors do their thing and then you
can go in and when you do pick up kind
of the the pure color it will mix on the
paper and just be kind of interesting
which I really like now if you want any
cool shadow something I like to do is
actually mix up purple and do the
quinacridone rose here actually it's
permanent rose but I believe it's a
quinacridone color a little marine blue
and that would give us a nice dark
shadow there we go little bit of burnt
sienna yellow ochre mix here to give a
little really sandy but you do get this
kind of little you see little bits of uh
I don't know places where people could
hop into the water over there it's get a
little bit represent that a little bit
of um a little bit of that brown now I
am just I know I'm gonna be painting
some stuff in the foreground that's
gonna cover this so I'm just wetting
that paper and letting those colors wick
back so I don't end up with this harsh
line there where the this mass over here
ended and then we're seeing foreground
stuff so now I'm going to work on
sketching in some rocks so that I'll
know where I can put my water and I'm
gonna go with burnt sienna and
ultramarine blue to make a nice dark
grey those are two colors I really
recommend you have in your palette
especially for on plein air work and I'm
gonna put a big boulder here so what we
did is we cracked out to this island
that was in the pond and it was kind of
like a little Cove and a bunch of like
weeds and lily pads and stuff and I
found that you could kind of caught up
in the weeds and not hold the kayak
still for painting so that's that's why
there's all these little it's all these
little plants and stuff over here in
rocks because that's that was kind of
keeping my kayak still so I could paint
I love how these colors just kind of
fade around very very nice and um I do
you know I didn't see this really great
tip I think it was on the doodle wash
site take an old sock like if you get a
sock with a hole in it cut the toe off
and then slide that over your palate so
then and then you can put it on your
wrist when you're painting out in the
field and you can wipe your brush on it
I'm like that is a fantastic idea how
many socks I have thrown away because
they didn't have their matches I just ah
that cried it's okay throw me somebody
socks like I've been using them now that
I have those sketched in I'm actually
gonna put in a little bit more water
here cuz rocks actually should be a
little bit lighter than what I have what
I have in my sketch there so I'm gonna
be mindful of that whoops I grabbed the
wrong color
as I throw in my other colors and I am
kind of trying to keep it with a
horizontal stroke so I do get some
movement in the water oh my gosh it was
that there was a mama and a baby loon
yesterday and they let us get so close
to them in the kayaks I couldn't believe
it oh my god we got a little too close
and they just kind of turned and
nonchalantly started to paddle away it
was very sweet you'd see how along was
kind of giving signals to the baby like
let's move these earthlings these people
are getting a little too close to us
making this little greener in here
because there's so much foliage around
to reflect in the water so I want to get
that get that feeling in here oh isn't
that pretty I just love sometimes just
what paint does on paper is so pretty
and it's like it's like what can I do to
improve on that paper that paint on
paper is just so pretty especially when
you are working with a nice brand of
paint and now I'm just gonna put some
like kind of darker values in the rocks
because I can do that without getting
into the water too much because the
paper is pretty wet no the paper if
you're painting outside in the summer
your paint your paper and paint you're
gonna dry quicker so it really does get
you in the habit of painting quickly
which is a great a great great habit to
get into I think because sometimes we
fuss over just the smallest details that
really don't matter that much now I am
gonna bless this with a heat tool to dry
it really quick I'll pause it while I do
that okay definitely took about 30
seconds to dry with my heat tool and I'm
gonna add some warmer colors to the
rocks here I'm gonna take a little
yellow ochre and just kind of get it
into some of the dirt on my palate and
just kind of glaze sea with yellow ochre
and it's only to be very yellow but I
just got some yellow ochre with the
grime here and let it kind of cross
pollinate my colors a little bit you
want a fresh look you don't want to have
that kind of overworked look to your to
your painting and I probably should've
mentioned this earlier but if you're
painting a long you're having a hard
time because I do have all this stuff in
frame you can always watch it in full
screen and it will make it a little
easier to see
every detail but a lot of people say
they like seeing the reference painting
and everything together and if I can do
it then then I will and then over here
kind of lost some of our kind of the
differences between the back mountain
and the foreground Hills there so what
I'm doing is yellow ochre and some of
the green mix and I'm just gonna kind of
tap on some of the treetops there here
and there don't go don't go crazy
it's when you want to brighten it up
make it a little bit more vivid so go
with a little lemon and that green cuz
it's not gonna be as vivid as if we just
put it on the paper it's still gonna mix
you know it's gonna not mix so much as
this is more of like a glaze and you're
seeing the other stuff underneath I
don't want that to be too bright though
because I don't want it to come forward
too much so I'm just gonna blot a little
bit there with my rag there we go
there now we clearly have the one level
and two level of distance there okay now
I'm gonna put like a tree they're gonna
take my burnt sienna out a little bit
ultramarine blue to darken it that's
quite a bit quite dark and I am just
gonna start behind the rock I have that
one in front of the rock but I think I
think I'm gonna make one behind the rock
this time see when you're doing your
picture you can change your landscape to
meet your needs I just think this might
look a little bit interesting then I
could put something in front of the rock
after they are like that because then
that rock is a little bit more prominent
and I think that looks good like that
because then they can always throw
something in front of the rock and now I
am going to grab some lemon and some
yellow ochre so this is gonna be nice
and light I'm gonna tap in some foliage
doing some hard strokes and some soft
strokes so that I get different sized
leaves
and then I'm gonna grab the green and
tap in right while it's still wet next
to it let it kind of flow let the colors
do their thing because you're giving one
brush like when you're painting in plein
air a lot of times like you're
especially if your water coloring you
don't want to bring the more you bring
the less you'll do that's something I
have found the more supplies I bring
with me on a trip the less I actually
get done so you just need to learn how
the different ways you can use that
brush so you're going to get the most
the most versatility now I'm going to
grab some more colors I can work on
these rocks and so I've got my Brent's
hand a little bit of the Isle terrine
I'm getting some nice wet shadows at the
bottom because where they're in the
water they're gonna be darker where the
water is kind of getting on the edges of
them palate came out my paint pan came
out those bottoms
that's that'll keep your rocks from
looking like they're floating if you get
the dark at the bottom and I think I
want some violet in the rocks and notice
I'm really not like squeezing out wiping
off my brush off a bit of my towel
though because I'm kind of a space I'm
not cleaning my brush that much because
I want my colors to be pretty vibrant
and full of life so look at that I love
the way that really grade violet looks
next to the yellow ochre wash that I
have on there I think it's their
compliments on the color wheel so they
make each other kind of stand out a
little bit more
it just gives a little bit more life to
the scene now I want to do some kind of
like lily pads and seaweed and all that
jazz so again doing the green light so
yeah I mean you don't have to have a lot
of colors here right I hope you're
seeing that you don't need a lot of
colors to get a lot of versatility when
you're painting I'm gonna flick up some
little like plants here go a little
darker evergreen my brushes too but I'm
getting way too thick of a line it's
kinda looking up from the bottom there
get smooth Reed's in there those look
really too bright so I'm gonna go with
the yellow ochre to dull the intensity
down a little bit and that's a great way
if you kind of got a fuzzy top of your
rock you can throw some little Reed's
kind of coming in from right behind it
and that will help get the kind of the
back area cleared out help it like kind
of so you can see the tops of things do
some lily pads in here please excuse any
any noise did you hear it is summer
vacation so there's a there's kids
wandering around throwing these little
lily pads here I've done a couple of
reeds now for scale I'm gonna put some
close up reeds just to have have
something to show like this is what's
right next to me
rate these these I don't what they are
they're these purple flowers that grow
in the ponds around here and they're
really pretty they kind of look like
lavender so we'll mix up some of that
and make some of those we're almost done
this is a really really quick project
and when you're painting you know the
world's first look few kids with you you
can't spend as much time as you like a
lot of times on working on something
because while the lights even if you
don't have kids with these light is
changing everything's changing
constantly you might have curious
onlookers that are making you nervous
you know it's just or people might be
waiting for a turn to get wherever
you're sitting to paint and you know
it's
it's not it's not studio conditions so
it forces you to really speed up and
only capture what's really important so
it really helps you edit a picture
really well and that will come back and
help you in the studio
when you're trying to decide what to
keep and what to get rid of in a
painting it's gonna drive this real
quick Oh be careful if you use a heat
gun to dry your homemade watercolor
blocks we used hot glue cuz it will heat
up the glue on the side as mine just did
but not a big deal so almost done I'm
gonna flick up a few more little Reed's
over here I need some yellow ochre next
that looks so really too fake of a green
so I'm just gonna through that throw a
few Reed's in there I'm gonna make that
a little bit darker those little leaves
on there and dab on a few more purple
flowers and we'll call this just about
done I don't want to cover up too much
of that rock I did end up covering up
some of it maybe grab a little bit more
watery color and just add some little
shadows around the lily pads here and
then to the rocks just for a little
definition but there you have it that is
how I painted my field spawn scene that
I shared on Instagram in my blog if you
want to see any of the other plein air
paintings that I have done in the field
just let me know in the comments below
let me know what you think you've any
questions go ahead and add them in and
I'll state I can do see if I can help
you I wanna thank you so much for
watching today please give me a thumbs
up and subscribe until next time happy
crafting