This painting started with no sketch. I decided to challenge myself and just paint as I saw fit. Then I decided to challenge myself further and try to stick with one color. In all honesty, all of my paintings are challenges. I guess that's what keeps me painting. I'm not good enough to do this effortlessly. Each painting challenges my ability and brain.
Anyway, I started this painting as I normally do by painting in a sky using my #10 round. I used some Ultramarine Blue to transition in a sky starting a tad rich then watering it down as I reached the horizon. Once at the horizon I introduced a very diluted Dioxazine Purple. It is now that I decide Dioxazine Purple is going to be the only color to complete this painting. I rarely use purple in my paintings so it makes me feel better to do nearly a whole painting with it. You never want your paint to feel neglected. I still love you Dioxazine Purple!!
Using a thin wash of the purple I draw a horizon line and tap in some distant trees using my #6 round. With them being so far away we aren't going to worry about too much detail. We'll add the bulk of the leaves and some of the thicker trunks and branches.
I got so into this painting that I forgot to document the steps where I created the foreground and the trees. So I'll summarize. After the horizon trees were done I decided to add another light wash of Ultramarine Blue to what could be water in the middle/foreground. I took some of the purple and did a slightly heavier wash for the earth on both sides of the paper using the #10 round again.
The trees on the horizon were great but I wanted to define the horizon more and added a suggestion of darker/shaded bushes across the paper at the horizon. I believe this helped make the horizon a more convincing distance from the foreground.
I then used a rich mix of Dioxazine Purple on my #6 round and sketched in the tree trunks on both sides of the viewing area. I hoped to frame the picture more using these trees and believe it worked. Once I added the branches to each tree I let that dry. Using a diluted mix of the purple I then dabbed in foliage for each of the trees. For some reason I wasn't going to add the foliage but realized the full looking trees on the horizon and how silly it might look to have leaf-less trees in the foreground.
To finish off this masterpiece I used the rich mix of purple to flick in some bushes in the foreground and along the sides of the pond. I realized early that this painting was going to stay loose and held myself back from getting too detailed with grass blades and such. No WizardofCheeze, detail bad!!
Here's my setup on the kitchen counter. I wish I could say this was a peaceful painting but I had my boys running around arguing and causing trouble. Somehow I didn't translate that chaos into the painting...which is a good thing.
Thanks for following along and leave a note in the comments so I know you checked this out.
Watercolors: Sennelier tubes - Ultramarine Blue, Dioxazine Purple
Brushes: Princeton Neptune - #10 Round & #6 Round
Paper: Fabriano Acquarello - Hot Press, 100% cotton, 300 g/m, 5"x7"
