Autumn Étude

Watercolor on Arches

Autumn touch

Watercolor on Canson Moulin du Roy 30x40

Green fern leaves and a plastic film was used to create texture in the front. This is quite an exciting technique, as you will never know, how the pigment will sink into the paper. I used ultramarine, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, burnt sienna, and burnt umber. The last color was a risky choice, my last three attempts with same palette were not successful - got a lot of muddy spots. This time mud was avoided by putting burnt umber directly on ultramarine, trying to avoid mixing with yellow colors. As I think of what I would do differently having a second chance to this painting - probably would make the distant trees lighter, colors less intense to create more expressed perspective.

Autumn forest

Watercolor on Canson Moulin du Roy

Recently I found out that watercolor paper moistened from both sides does dry so fast, remains smooth and does not create ripples. In this painting I used masking fluid, wet on wet technique, and a touch of white gouache for birch trunks.

Swamp