In this picture you can see the masked areas, and my first layers of paint.  I start with light washes and block in major areas of color.  From there, it’s a process of slowly building up color until I reach the right value and hue that I want.  I constantly refer back to my original sketch to check how dark or light I intended to make an area.  I don’t finish one area, then move to the next, but instead do a little here a little there so that the all areas of the scene progress evenly.  The exception, of course is the masked areas, which I generally leave until near the end to paint.  Stay tuned, I’ll discuss more of that in the next post.

After I’m finished with my preliminary drawing my next step is to transfer that drawing to a nice piece of watercolor paper.  I use a 300 pound hot-press paper, made by Fabriano.  It’s a very thick paper with a flat surface.  The flat surface is much easier to draw on than the rougher cold-press papers and the thickness allows it to absorb a lot of water and paint without buckling.

I use a lightbox to help me trace the drawing onto the watercolor paper with a hard (H or 2H) pencil.  I like the harder pencil in this case because leaves a light line which I can easily erase.  When I’m tracing, I try to do it quickly and accurately, but I try not to get to hung up in details, because with the light shining from behind the image I can’t really see the paper very well.  After I’m done tracing, and I take the paper off the lightbox, then I very carefully add details, and adjust the drawing.  This is the final step before I start applying paint, and I want to be sure everything is just the way I want it.

When the drawing is done, I soak it in water for 5 minutes and then staple it(while  it’s still wet) to my painting board.  The board is 1/2″ plywood.  After the paper dries, it will be ready for painting.  Because it’s been presoaked, the paper the surface will remain flat as I paint on it.

This preliminary drawing is the last thing I do before I start painting and I try my best to work out as many details as possible in this drawing.  Since I work in watercolors, it’s very hard to go back and change things after I start to paint.  When the drawing is finished, I use a lightbox to transfer it to a nice piece of watercolor paper…but that’s step two, and I’ll write more about that tomorrow.

Signed Print from Redwoods

A new print from Redwoods is now available on Etsy.com.  The high quality digital print is 12″ tall by 16.25″ wide, and is signed and dated.  They cost $15 plus shipping and handling — a perfect Christmas gift!  Click on the image for more details.