Watercolor Studio - Missouri Watercolor Society

I
did a painting of a church in Mountville,
Pennsylvania in the snow last winter.
Colors: ultramarine blue, cobalt blue,
raw sienna, burnt sienna, and a touch of
winsor yellow for the window
Step 1
I mix up puddles of each color, then dip my
brush in one color, then the other. (Don’t
premix the colors on your palette, let them
mix on the paper.) I use lots of color and
lots of water, with a fat brush that holds a
large load of paint.
For the clouds and blowing snow, I dumped
water on the paper and let it blend into the
colors.
Step 2
More blue and brown on the church. Now
that my main washes are done, I put in a
black roof. I like to establish my darkest
dark early, to make it easier to judge my
values. I’ll be painting the top steeple part
of the church a dark value, but I want to try
and finish the sky and cloud before I paint
the steeples. The cloud looks like a dragon
and needs adjusted.
The most exciting part of watercolor is
to work with the paint to keep any lucky
accidents that I find really appealing, like
the touch of bright raw sienna near the left
bottom edge of the church.
Painting
Blowing
Snow
by Debi Watson
7