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The Frugal Crafter Blog
Howdy friends! One year ago I was sitting on a tropical beach sipping a Mai-Tai (Facebook reminded me) and today I am sitting in my living room, near the fireplace watching the snow fall outside. I’m not saying one is better than the other but I sure would love to feel the sun on my face and the warm sand between my toes! Hence the inspiration for today’s beginner painting tutorial.
Today’s post is about making the best of our situation and appreciating what we have. Do you have some inexpensive watercolor paints from when you first started out? How about a tube of Chinese white paint that came in a watercolor set that you just never knew what to do with. Today we are going to use inexpensive watercolors mixed with chinese white watercolor to make our own gouache and paint a beautiful sunset. You can also paint this with acrylics if you prefer, heck you can use oils too just swap out the watercolor paper for a canvas panel. If you have never picked up a brush before this is the perfect project to try, it’s a no fail recipe:) So, let’s forget it’s winter for a bit and step into this lovely tropical beach scene!
Reasons you should try this technique:
1. You are using the paint more thickly and will less water so lower quality paper can be used and still look nice.
2. It is a great way to use up those tubes of white and some economy paints if you have upgraded your watercolors recently.
3. It is a nice “bridge” technique if you are going from watercolor to acrylics or oils.
4. It allows you to capture pastel colors without watering down your paints which can be problematic on low-grade paper.
5. It’s fun!
- Watercolor paint (colors: rose, cadmium yellow, prussion (pthalo) blue, burnt umber, *Chinese white) *Adding white to each color makes it gouache.
- Brushes (I used Zen all media brushes from Royal and Langnickel but any synthetic brushes should be fine)
- Watercolor paper 6″x8″ (I am using rough handmade paper but this technique is forgiving and suitable to any thick paper or board)
- Reference photo by Sean O. on Unsplash
I hope this inspired you to paint and it gives you a new idea on a different way to put your watercolors to use. As for me I think I’ll put on some steel drum music, make a pitcher of lemonade and dream of summer. Happy crafting!
Step 1
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BRUSHES
Round #16, Round #10, Round #2
COLOR PALETTE
Opera Rose, Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, Payne’s Gray, Burnt Umber, White Gouach
Step 2
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THE SKY
Before you start painting, take a minute to mix some of the colors for the sky. Combine Opera Rose and Prussian Blue to make a violet color, then mix Yellow Ochre with Opera Rose to make an orange-pink color. Then, create the base layers for the sky and the ocean using the wet-on-wet technique. Lay down a wash of clean water across the whole page, and paint with light (watery) value of violet across the top of the sky.
Step 3
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Then, paint with the orange-pink color across the bottom of the sky, landing at about the center of the page. Use water and more watery paint to lightly blend the violet and orange and pink together in a gradient. Finally, paint the bottom of the paper, where the ocean will be, a light value of orange-pink, with a few light zigzag strokes on the left side to provide a base for future waves.
