Watercolour Final Process

Reference Image:

Harbour in Norway, photographed by Kho Yu Li
Composition:

  • Following the Rule of thirds with the boat as main focus and diagonal leading lines to guide the eyes around the picture clockwise.
  • Mountains at background to break horizontal separation of picture.
  • Cropped boat and houses at the right so as to continue narrative
  • Size hierarchy of boats and buildings to create sense of depth

 

Tonal Studies:

75% Dark:

75% Light:

Light source from left + Darkest nearest, lightest furthest:

Light source from back + Lightest nearest, Darkest furthest:

Decided to settle on the light source from the back as it seems more dramatic; Finalised on tones and shapes:

Exploring using brush pen! Helped me to see shapes and overall tonal balance of image better.

Trial 1:

Had a stressful time deciding on which colours to use that will go well together, as from the previous assignment(interior), I do note that I have the tendency to jump colours easily, which will separate the picture distinctly.

I think the abrupt warm colour of the sky toppled the painting, but as mentioned during review, could probably be saved if I added some of the orange onto the bottom area.

Trial 2:

Decided to look up for colour references before I started, and so took reference from this picture:

At first I thought that there was a nice contrast between the red and greens but upon using the online picker to isolate colours from a specific region of the page, realised that the red was mostly just brown and the green was greyish.

Hence, I tried to mute down my colours as well.

So I first fill in the main bulk(sea) with orange/reddish brown hues and used greyish green for the darker areas.

Felt that the sea was separating the individual bodies too much, so I added a layer of brown to join them up.

Painted the sky purple for ambiance, because I thought that light blue from the reference picture would be too plain. Painted the rim of mountains light grey to join the green and purple.

Added a blue hue to the rest of the picture through their shadows to link it with the purple sky.

However, I still thought that the picture looked flat, but I didn’t want to overwork and deviate from the tonal study.

Trial 3:

Tried out another complementary colour scheme: Purple and yellow.

But I felt that the colours were shouting too loud, so I added browns to tone it down.

I felt that I might have darkened the picture too much with the browns, so I mixed titanium white with yellow to brighten the bottom left area, as well as the builings.I think one problem I faced is the tendency for green to appear when blue/purple overlaps with yellow, instead of the intended grey/brown.

But one good thing I realised about using opaque paints is the ability to do dry brush strokes(bottom left) that will not fade/blend out easily.

Trial 4:

For my previous works, I noticed that the objects were all individually separated on their own. So this time, I decided to do a combined first wash for all of them instead of letting one part dry and then painting a separate area.

Also, I decided to start with much more neutral colours.

Adding more layers to form up shapes.

Finally, added details with brush pen to achieve the “chinese painting” effect.

Also, I added tinges of purple, blue and green around the picture so as to make it more “balanced”, which I now know as creating visual tension.

FINAL SUBMISSION:

Overall,  I have learnt a lot from painting this piece and exploring the various tones/colours combination.

I think it is easier to start with neutral colours and then working towards adding hues instead of vice versa.

Also, at first I was afraid to use really dark colours for the specific details but realised that the strong contrast at the end adds another dimension and help the image look clearer/finished.

Finally, I would like to thank my friend for the reference photo, Alvin for his encouragement and Woon Lam for imparting your invaluable knowledge to us! I am definitely more sensitive to colour and shapes now and I hope paint better in the future! 🙂