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1 Landscape painting with 10 Watercolor techniques

Hello The title sounds interesting, right? And so should be also your watercolor landscape painting. There are many styles of painting from hyper realistic, semi realistic to abstract. Today I want to show you how to use 10 watercolor painting techniques to make your landscape more interesting. A fun side effect is, that it's even more fun for you to paint. I will take my own photo as a reference and won't worry too much about how realistic the painting will look like. It's all about pure creativity and having fun.I chose this particular photo because it has lots of green color and lots of foliage. If you ever painted such a landscape you know the outcome. A landscape painting that can easily turn into a green rectangular mess. Before I started to paint, I made a quick pencil drawing. Then it was time for me to decide which technique to use for what part of the painting. The easiest was to see what would be suitable for the plastic wrap technique and the masking fluid technique. For the other techniques I just picked the places more or less randomly.On the left side you can see my watercolor painting and on the right my reference photo. The number marks indicate the place where I used a certain watercolor painting technique.In this tutorial I won't go in detail how each individual painting technique is created, I will just try to show you, how you can also create an interesting looking landscape with watercolors.Let's begin with the first steps!Art materials I used:watercolor paper Fabriano watercolor studio 300g/m2 , 140lbswatercolor brush daVinci casaneo no.16, flat, daVinci Cosmotop-spin no.5, roundwatercolors White Nights no.215 Hanza Yellow, no. 727 Olive Green, no.725 Green, no. 408 Burnt Umber, no. 413 Sepia, no. 812 Payne's Greyalcohol, table salt, paper tissue, masking fluid Schmincke, kitchen plastic wrap1.) Wet on wet techniqueI started with the painting process by first wetting the first upper half of the watercolor paper with water. For this I just used a flat brush that was wet. Then I started to add different colors on the wetted area. The colors started to melt between each other and also into the area that was just wet on the paper. The first impression you get is mess...pure mess. But that's a good mess.A small tip: A wet watercolor painting will always look bad. That's why you shouldn't panic and no matter what stop the painting process. Wait for the painting to dry. When the watercolor paper gets dry, the colors always look lighter, smoother and more "dream like".Then I started to paint other areas like you would normally do (wet on dry). First layers are always light, then you can start to add darker colors. To keep some areas wet, I added lots of wet color. Another thing I did is hurry...like really hurry. It's one thing to do just one separate technique or 5 techniques at the same time to keep the painting color consistent and looking "together" without getting the sharp, transitioning edges in between them.I didn't think too much where something starts and something ends, but I more or less tried to capture the light areas and the dark ones, where something is green (foliage, trees) and where brown (rocks). I knew that the different techniques I will use, will do the job for me.2.) Plastic wrap techniqueA great technique that can be sometimes tricky to pull off. With me it's sometimes a hit, other times a miss. The darker colors you will use, the more the pattern will show. I used small pieces of the plastic wrap to make it more easier to spread on the paper. I left it on the paper for the whole time of the painting process. Only after it was completely dry, I have removed it. To add more drama to the texture, I have then painted some parts with brown color, to make them more darker.3.) Alcohol techniqueFirst I added some color and then added couple of droplets of alcohol. I think that I could maybe wait just a little bit more for the color to dry, because the alcohol droplets did "vanish" into the wet area a little bit. But it was still a good result.4.) Softening the edges techniqueIt's very simple and very useful for many occasions. For this landscape painting I added dark green and then cleared the brush off in a glass of water. Then I took away some excess water from the brush and when it was still wet, went around the edges of the green color to wet the area, to make the green color run into the wet paper area.5.) Salt techniqueIt's one of the most known and used technique in watercolor for creating special effects. The only problem is that most of the time you can't predict if it will work or not. The outcome depends on the color pigment, the dry/wet state of the color and on the salt. By salt I mean if it's wet or dry. I started to notice that because of the humidity in my room the salt likes to get wet and this isn't the best for a watercolor painting. That's why I sometimes end up with paper areas that never want to dry out where I put the salt on. So if this happens to you to, you know why. 6.) Paper tissue techniqueThis technique is most of the time shown in relation to cloud painting tutorials. But why just stick to clouds, right? You can use the paper tissue also to create interesting looking texture by lifting some parts of the colors. You just have to make sure to not be too late with it, otherwise the colors won't lift up anymore.7.) Lifting techniqueYes, there's also the lifting of colors technique with a wet brush. You have to pick the perfect time, to start to wet the area. The best is when the paper is still damp and the colors have a little bit of shine on them. Just make sure the brush isn't too wet either, so you won't get water droplets falling on the paper. You can always re-wet the brush and "paint" with it on the spot you want to remove the color. For the best outcome and to prevent any further running of color, use in between some paper tissue to collect the water on the paper. But do it gently. Just a little bit of pressing down and lifting up of the tissue. You can again repeat the process with the wet brush and the paper tissue.8.) Dry brush techniqueA very nice technique for creating light reflections on lakes or any water landscapes. I used it for the stone stairs. The brush needs to be more on the dry side, but still wet enough for the color to be transferred on the paper. You just gently glide with the brush on the surface of the paper, almost barely touch it. In my final painting this technique isn't visible anymore, since I decided to paint the stairs with some dark color afterwards. But I could have left it also that way.9.) Masking fluid techniqueWatercolors and masking fluid are best friends in watercolor paintings, so why not use it also in a landscape like this. The masking fluid can be added on the desired parts of the painting that you want to preserve. I could use it for highlights, but instead I used it for individual leafs. With that I made them look more 3D like and made them more stand out from the painting.10.) Splatter techniqueNot a must to use watercolor technique, but why not make the painting more loose looking, more artsy. You just make the colors more watery and splatter them with the brush around the areas you want the dots to appear. In case you want to avoid some areas, try to cover them with a piece of paper. We are done! We painted 1 watercolor landscape with 10 different watercolor painting techniques.Here's the final version of my watercolor landscape painting:You can use any kind of watercolor techniques you want in your painting. There are even more than those that I have just listed. Maybe you will use only one or two techniques or use more than five. It all depends on your style and what you like. But remember that using more watercolor techniques, doesn't mean that the quality of the painting will get better. Use the techniques wisely! Thank you for taking your time and going through my tutorial. If you have any additional questions or even some suggestions or tips, I would be very happy to hear from you....

TokyoMoonlight