Demo- Foggy Eucalyptus Grove
A few weeks back, I was a guest teacher at an online class watercolorist Samantha McNally holds, and I painted this as a follow along experience. This video is a bit long and winding, as it’s a real time version of the class, but I thought folks would find it interesting, and so I wanted to share it here.
The journey for this image started back in November, when I took this photo one morning while driving my lovely daughter to school.
I’m notorious in my family for endlessly pulling over to take photos, or circling back around (which is what I did in this instance) to get the shot before it goes away. :) With a kiddo at home, I don’t yet live the kind of life where I can just go out and paint plein air all the time, so reference photos are important! The photos never remain, the light always changes. So, I’m a big proponent of taking the time take the pic you want!
I did this little 8x8 painting of it, and I loved it. I focused on warm versus cool, and how to get those streaks of light.
It really struck Sam too, and so she brought me on board to do the demo. This format was so pleasing to me, and I loved the brevity of it (compared to normal, anyways) that it became the seed of my current Daily Painting extravaganza.
As is often the case, I prepped by doing the painting again, but a bit bigger. This one is an 11x15. I brought the greens into this version, and liked that. I love painting wet into wet, so this was a lot of fun- it’s always a little dance, a tightrope walk, where you’re being very attentive to the moisture levels and such. That’s my favorite kind of watercolor playground.
Satisfied I had a relatively good sense of how to handle the subject, I dove into the demo itself.
As is most often the case, I wet the back of the paper, as well as the board, then waited 5 minutes or so to let it soak in. This gets a good reservoir of water within the body of the paper. Of course, this makes the watercolor clock run slowly so I don’t get cauliflowers and such. But it also helps me do things like lift paint and keep my edges soft— important technical elements for a subject like this in particular!
Here’s the demo below. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away. I’ll do my best to respond. :)
NOTE- I’ve had some folks say they can’t see the video. It’s very strange, as I can see it on my laptop, but not on my phone. Here’s a link to the video on my youtube channel though- https://youtu.be/82afe0i4mIE