Watercolor is a medium I’ve enjoyed from afar for a long time. I have fond memories from my childhood of painting at her kitchen table. Four year old Sophia sitting with her piece of paper taped in place, with her kiddie paints and an oversized button up shirt as a smock, and my grandma, sitting next to me, showing me the magic of watercolour.
For some reason or another I drifted away from painting entirely in my teen years. Moving into costume-making and stage design. I was incredibly excited to finally take the dip this year in my art class. And I think it’s a medium I will continue to come back to.
Watercolour was our transition unit, out of inktober but before breaking into acrylic. We started with small swatches and colour wheels, and then were let loose to create a painting of our own.
I chose to recreate a photo I’d taken on my walk to school. I liked the way the fog blended with the sunrise to create bright orange colours on the horizon and the way the power lines framed the image.
I used a white gel pen to transpose on a grid so I could get my spacing and proportions right, then started with a light wash to blend the blue/grey with the orange sunrise. From there I slowly built up the dark silhouettes of the trees below. The most challenging part for me was balancing the different kinds of dark that make up the bottom half of the painting. I didn’t want to lose the detail in the road and cars and trees, but also didn’t have time to make it perfect.
