This location in Zion National Park is one of my favorite places to paint plein air. In this case however I wanted to do a very big painting, so I completed it in the studio.
My watercolor paintings are done in the “transparent” style, which means no opaques. Therefore I must preserve the lightest lights from the beginning and use successively darker glazes to build up the values.
My studio painting set-up consists of two Eldajon palettes, one warm and one cool. I usually work standing up using a very tall table, since I am over six foot tall. The paper is Arches 300 lb. cold press.
These close-ups of the painting in progress demonstrate how I use splattering to build up texture in foliage areas, and also negative painting to reveal the light shapes. I do not use any Miskit or other masking, but I do use “lifting.”