so the weather isn't good enough for outdoor painting

but we can paint from a sketch indoors.

This is a pencil sketch of Holywood, near to my home in Belfast

I plan to paint a simple watercolour in around 15 minutes or so

I prefer working from sketches

Photographs can't show you what you saw in a subject

A sketch can show the tonal differences better than a photograph

We'll start off with a nice sky wash

using cobalt blue

Not too weak. If the first wash is too weak

it can affect everything else later on.

I'm using a size 12 soft mop to create the sky

leaving an edge for the clouds

I'll use raw sienna for the actual clouds

and go into the edge of the blue for softness

Don't worry if it turns slightly green

I'll leave some edges hard for variety

With some extra cobalt, I'll bring the sky down to the horizon.

Below the horizon I'll change to green for the grass

For green I'll mix a cold yellow with French Ultramarine

Cold yellows include Winsor Yellow, Lemon Yellow and Aureolin

For sand I'll use burnt sienna

Let the colours run together in the first wash

That's stage one and we can relax. (10 minute drying time)

We'll continue by painting the parts of the subject furthest back

I'll use the green I used for the grass with some cobalt to cool it down

I leave it slightly unmixed on the palette, allowing it to mix on the paper

I'll add extra cobalt to cool it more

It is a little too much the same

so I'll use some pure cobalt

The trees need to be much darker than the background

For a warm green, use viridian

with burnt sienna

Burnt sienna warms up the cold viridian

Using the side of the brush, I suggest the trees

There is a second group of trees

Painting these trees also paints the side of the building

Phthalo blue and alizarin crimson make a good purple / gray

but take care with the proportions to avoid too much colour bias

With the same mix I will suggest the windows

Just little lines - the windows are too far away to show detail

There are perhaps too many similar windows

so I'll use my finger to smudge them a little

Never underestimate using your finger as an extra brush

I need to darken the chimneys so that they are visible against the sky

I'll use a weak gray

Ultramarine and burnt sienna

I'm trying for a gray slightly biased towards warm

I don't want it to be too neutral

Too dark

Probably just too much paint on the brush

Still too dark - so I'll remove some of the paint

I'm going to start making excuses here

Because the camera is in front of the paper

it is tricky to manage some of the finer details

It is always important to have excuses as a painter!!

I'll use the same phthalo / alizarin mix for the other building

I should really have painted this before the trees

but things don't always go to plan

Behind the trees we have some more distant trees

I'll use a cooler green for them

Cobalt and raw sienna

produce a dull green ideal for distance

I need to darken the nearer trees

so that the lighter hedge can be seen against them

Viridian + burnt sienna + ultramarine produces a good dark green

Because the tree wash is still wet

the dark merges nicely

I'm not really painting trees

They are really just blobs - too far away for detail

For sea I'll use a gray / blue

Ultramarine and burnt sienna again

Some darker green for hedges

Again I'll use the viridian / burnt sienna mix

with a little ultramarine

I leave a gap for a lighter hedge

I'll put that in later

The wall is also ultramarine / burnt sienna

Just a simple stroke across the paper

and down here too

Some hedge colour has run into the wall

but that's not important

More sea

Best to let it dry (10 minute drying time)

I'll paint the lighter hedge

using a warmer green by adding some raw sienna to the green mix

There are two walls

the sea wall and the wall behind the path

I'll darken to top wall slightly

It must be dark against the sea

but lighter against the dark trees

I'll clean and almost dry my brush

and this allows me to lighten the wall wash

I'll put some rocks in at the bottom of the sea wall

and some marks on the wall to show the slope

We'll need to darken the grass in part

You can't see the difference between the sand and the grass

but that is ok so I need to keep that as it is

I'll dampen the top of the grass

and use a darker grass mix of cool yellow and ultramarine

The darker mix will merge with the damp grass

Use drybrush for the foreground grass

It is all to do with tone

we can see the difference between the grass and the beach

The beach and wall are a little too similar in tone

so I'll add some more rocks

There is a little ship out here

I'll put it in very simply

As a simple sketch this is probably ok

It could be enhance here and there

We could put a little shadow under the eaves

and on the front of the chimneys

That one is a little too obvious

I think, as a sketch

that is probably fine.

I'll leave it as it is