Step One
Working with 3 colours is a great way of producing paintings that are well balanced and learning how primary colours work . From just red , yellow and blue you can mix any colour but white and black . We don ’ t need white in watercolour as the paper is
white and we work with transparent paint . Adding more water is like adding white and black is just too overpowering dark . A grey mixed from 70 % French Ultramarine Blue , 10 % Alizarin Crimson and 20 % Cadmium Yellow is the perfect dark colour .
Step Two
Once sketched in with a 2B pencil , the first job is to use masking tape to mask out the snow covered peaks of the mountains . A good tip is to remove the stickiness by tapping the tape to your fingers first .
Then mix a pale sandstone from cadmium yellow with a touch of alizarin crimson and a touch of blue . Mix a deep violet from blue and crimson and a strong mix of the grey ( detailed above ). Using the size 12 brush , wet the sky and water area and apply the sandstone to the bottom of the sky and top of the water .
Clean the brush and add the deep violet to the top of the sky and the bottom of the water . Stroke this down to mix with the sandstone .
Finally , paint the dark grey clouds . A good tip is to have less paint on your brush , so dab off the excess on kitchen paper . Practice the twist of the clouds , making sure you have plenty of dark around the masked off peaks . With the size 6 brush , paint some horizontal , dry ripples in the water . Leave a light area central in the water .
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