Quick vignette Study 2

Step 1

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1 Take a postcard-sized piece of watercolour paper and tape it down all the way around the edge.

2 Draw a horizon line about a third of the way up. 3 Prepare a similar palette that uses the same plum mix from the previous study, a second small amount of ultramarine on its own. You will need to add water to the raw sienna and stir all of it into a loose puddle the consistency of single cream.

4 Apply several brush loads of clean water to the area of sky and sweep the brush from side to side until there is an even film of water on it. Keep the brush at a low angle to maximise the area of contact.

5 Jiggle the tip of the brush across the ultramarine on the palette then gently feather patches of this into the sky. Dry this.

Step 2

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1 Add water to the ultramarine to loosen it off so you will be ready to paint the sea.

2 Sweep lots of the prepared raw sienna across the beach area leaving it about 1cm short of the horizon.

3 Whilst this is wet, immediately wash the brush and fill it with the ultramarine. Carefully paint across the horizon then pick up more paint and move it across again, leaving a narrow space to represent waves. This time keep the brush low and sweep the ultramarine into the wet raw sienna on the beach. It is best not to fiddle with this; just leave it to settle naturally once the colours have blended.

 Step 3

You can now apply the rocks on the beach in the same way as described in the practice exercise. Using the plum mix, paint a solid formation of rocks.

 Step 4

Scratch out the highlights with a credit card.

Step 5 „

1 Once this is dry, add a few dark areas of shadow around the base of the rocks. 2 You can also add a distant headland using loose ultramarine.