In this series of lessons, I will be showing you how to make a watercolour painting from a bighorn sheep reference. In this session we will be adding transitions and textures in the halftones.
MATERIALS
- Watercolour paper
- Several small – medium soft brushes
- Watercolour paints (anything you have to hand)
- Water pot
- Paper towel or rag
Reference Image: https://unsplash.com/photos/6Uh-fJizwlw
- Begin by adding the darkest halftones in gradual washes. These will be developed out of the shadow edge.
- Try to avoid adding tone in the light areas for now as we don’t want to lose the luminosity of the image.
- You can allow the brush to splay a bit because this will create a texture that emulates fur.
- Once the halftones are in, you can go back into the shadows and start to lay some darker sections again.
- This will likely be needed to create enough tonal space for the halftones to work.
- Likewise, you can push the background much darker as well, because this will help to pop out the bighorn and enhance the glow of the lightest parts.
- You can use wet washes at the edge of this dark tone to create a blurry transition.
