As artists and people, we view and interpret nature personally. Chinese master artists paint not what they see, but what they want to see. The impressions we have of the world and the ideal colors of our imagination are all we need to create harmonious landscape paintings. In this exercise I was inspired by the purplish brown colors of a log house in Switzerland contrasted against strong yellow and green trees. I allowed these dominant colors to inspire my own interpretation of this scene.
1 On 140-lb. (300gsm) cold-pressed watercolor paper, sketch the landscape with a no. 2 pencil. Use masking fluid and tape to block the sky, the house, a few branches and foliage, and the wall and ground where it catches the light. Spray the paper with water and drop diluted red, yellow and blue in a random fashion.
2 Spray the paint a few times, allowing the colors to run together, then blend with your fingers or brush.
3 Spray water on the tree and foliage areas and drop in blue and yellow with your brush. Add red and blue liquid to the doorway and spray a few times to let the colors mix. Tilt the painting about 5 inches (13cm) off your painting surface to let the colors flow into the rocks and foreground.
4 In the foreground, drop in diluted yellow, blue and red until the colors mix and resemble the color of the house. This is how I have imagined my house to look, much different from reality.
5 Remove the masking and tapes from the sky and foreground, then use a no. 4 round to call out details on buildings with blues and reds.
6 Remove the masking from the trees and house, and use a no. 2 round to fill in yellow and blue on the downspouts, and red and yellow on the beams and 2 rails.
7 Using the same brush from step 6, define the rock wall and staircase with red and blue. Paint the 2 dogs and leave white highlights on their backs and heads. I chose to put in the dogs to add some action to my imagined scene.