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Description
I guess it takes more than one watercolor to scare me... it probably takes two. This is my second one.

The great thing about doing winter scenes, for me, in watercolors is that all the white snow separates the colors and keeps the painting from getting too muddy, which is a problem for me in this media as the colors and values seem to often run together.

I develop these scenes with small thumbnail sketches and then try to scale them up to full size line drawings on scrap paper (2 - 4 typing sheets taped together). This is the hardest part -- scaling up the lines to make it look right. When I'm happy with what I have, I tape this 'blueprint' to the back of my watercolor paper (or canvas) and trace out the lines using a light box. This allows me to make changes from the blueprint to the final version -- re-position the image, refine the image, even condense or eliminate parts. It also allows me to repaint the scene as often as I like without having to redraw anything.

This and my previous watercolor are taken from larger 18x24". 45x60cm 'blueprints' that I have painted before. I don't believe I ever painted a full version of the previous watercolor, but I did a small summer scene using that blueprint, and today's comes from a blueprint I used for a fall painting.

18x12" 45x30cm watercolor and ink on 140lb Montval paper

Description
I guess it takes more than one watercolor to scare me... it probably takes two. This is my second one.

The great thing about doing winter scenes, for me, in watercolors is that all the white snow separates the colors and keeps the painting from getting too muddy, which is a problem for me in this media as the colors and values seem to often run together.

I develop these scenes with small thumbnail sketches and then try to scale them up to full size line drawings on scrap paper (2 - 4 typing sheets taped together). This is the hardest part -- scaling up the lines to make it look right. When I'm happy with what I have, I tape this 'blueprint' to the back of my watercolor paper (or canvas) and trace out the lines using a light box. This allows me to make changes from the blueprint to the final version -- re-position the image, refine the image, even condense or eliminate parts. It also allows me to repaint the scene as often as I like without having to redraw anything.

This and my previous watercolor are taken from larger 18x24". 45x60cm 'blueprints' that I have painted before. I don't believe I ever painted a full version of the previous watercolor, but I did a small summer scene using that blueprint, and today's comes from a blueprint I used for a fall painting.

18x12" 45x30cm watercolor and ink on 140lb Montval paper