Make a careful drawing of the bridge, canal banks and tree outlines with a 2B pencil, keeping it simple.

Don’t overdo the detail.
 

Use masking fluid to retain the highlights along the top of the bridge, under the arch and around a few tree outlines. Once again, be restrained.

With your board slightly tilted, and using your largest brush, wet the whole area of the paper with clean water.

Now using the aureolin, cobalt blue and rose madder, start dropping in the greens, browns and blues of the landscape letting them blend into a soft overall wash.

Don’t worry about keeping your washes within the pencil lines at this stage.

Once the wash has completely dried, remove all the masking fluid, and start to bring form to the trees using fluid washes of aureolin, cobalt blue, ultramarine and burnt sienna.

Soften some of the hard edges of the foliage with clean water.

Paint a flat wash of cobalt blue and burnt sienna over the bridge and down into the reflection, leaving some of the areas of the original wash to depict stones.

Put a wash of cobalt blue and rose madder onto the background trees to make them recede.

With a stronger mix of ultramarine and burnt sienna paint in the tree and the shadow area under the arch, using the same mixture for the reflections.

Mix up a good well of cobalt blue and burnt sienna and then lay a wash over the whole water area leaving a few light areas of the original wash.

Take care not to disturb the underlying details too much when applying this wash.  A light touch is required here.

Using the rigger, paint in the branches, lifting out the colour in places to blend them in with the foliage.

Complete the picture by putting in the dark accents along the water’s edge, the post, a few stone outlines on the bridge.

Figure 4 Quiet Waters.  Watercolour 10” x 14” (25.4cm x 35.5cm)

Barry Herniman organises and tutors painting holidays at home and abroad. He is also available for workshops and demonstrations to art societies. His Cloverleaf paintbox is available online at: cloverleafpaintbox.com.

You can order a selection of books by Barry in our online bookstore.

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