Step 1
“Swiss Valley” – 8 x 12 Watercolor Painting by Roland Lee
Step 2
When working in watercolor it is good to remember that the water picks up the color of the sky above it. I painted both the sky and the water surface in this painting at the same time using the wet into wet watercolor technique. I also dropped in the distant trees at this point.
Step 3
I first did the distant mountains, leaving them light on the right side, so I could give the indication of clouds floating in front of them. With those in place I moved immediately to the foreground laying in my darkest darks on the weeds and grasses.
Step 4
With the distant values in place, and my darkest foreground shadows defined, I can now move back to the middle ground and paint the village and the rest of the trees, keeping them in the proper value range.