Beginner’s watercolour

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

■ How to mix different consistencies of paint

■ Produce two paintings of snow scenes

■ Practise your brushstrokes

You will need

• Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolour tubes: ultramarine & light red

• Stephen Coates Spearhead Round brushes No. 8 & 6

• Pro Arte Prolene No. 2 Round brush

• Pro Arte Mini-hake

• Two pieces of Bockingford NOT 140lb (300gsm) paper, 7½x11in. (19x28cm)

• Palette or tray for mixing

• Dry rag or cloth

• Kitchen towel

Welcome to the third instalment of this watercolour course. In the first two parts we examined the fluidity of the paint and how to create wet-into-wet blending. We also looked at colours, how to mix primaries and use a limited palette. This month we are going to create snow scenes using just ultramarine and light red. This is about as limited as you can get!

Timing and brush size

Before we start, I just want to explain a little about timing. Watercolour pigments are only suspended in water. Not