24 Essential Watercolor Tips and Tricks: Transforming Video Walks into Stunning Harbour Paintings

Essential Watercolor Tips and Tricks: Transforming Video Walks into Stunning Harbour Paintings

Here is a comprehensive list of tips and techniques, covering everything from finding subjects to adding final details.

I. Finding Unlimited Reference Material

Don't spend time scrolling through endless photo galleries searching for inspiration.

1. Harness Walking Videos: Utilize YouTube walking videos, which are an "absolute gold mine for painters". The creator has already done the hard work of finding beautiful locations and filming everything for you.
2. Pause and Paint: You can sit at home and "pause the video whenever you want to" to find "something fantastic to paint". Videos like "Dave's Walks" are slow and steady, allowing you to clearly see everything at walking pace. Use the left arrow and right arrow on YouTube to move backward and forward through the scene.
3. Modern Reference Gathering: Using these videos is simply a "modern way of gathering reference material". However, always secure the permission of the creator before using their videos.

II. Composition and Planning Techniques

A strong painting starts with smart compositional choices and simplification.

4. Embrace Contre-Jour: When selecting your scene, choose a "contre-jour" composition, meaning you are looking into the light. This lighting is excellent for watercolor because it naturally creates "silhouetted shapes and nice contrasts of lights and darks".
5. Simplify the Scene: Do not feel obligated to include every element from the reference video.
   • Omit Clutter: Remove distracting elements, such as cars on the quayside, which "are not really doing anything" for the composition.
   • Avoid Jumble: If the source photo contains too many boats, simplify them by leaving out certain vessels to prevent a "jumbled scene".
6. Plan Your Values: Establish your main areas of light and dark early. Use the quayside or foreground as a big area of warmth (using colours like burnt sienna and burnt umber) to contrast against the cool colours of the harbor water and background buildings.

III. Drawing and Perspective Essentials

Focus on key shapes and simplifying complex subjects like boats.

7. Concentrate on Main Shapes: When drawing a harbour scene with "loads of boats," simplify them and concentrate only on the main boat shapes.
8. Ensure Hull Alignment: To maintain the illusion of a row of distant boats, make sure that the boat hulls and the water lines are all in line.
9. Near Boat Curves: For a boat viewed at an angle close to you, the far side of the hull is often almost a straight line, but the near side (the bow) must include a curve that "sweeps around".
10. Use Perspective: Draw boats in the distance "a lot smaller" than those in the foreground to create depth.
11. Add "Boat-like" Paraphernalia: To make drawn shapes look more authentic, include essential items like masts, rigging, buoys, or circular fenders.

IV. Mastering Watercolor Wash Techniques

Success in watercolor often depends on water management and timing.

12. Prepare the Sky Wash: Pre-wet the paper in the sky area with a soft sponge or a flat brush to ensure an "even layer of water," which facilitates a "nice smooth wash".
13. Subtle Sky Values: Keep the sky light (e.g., using yellow ochre), aiming only to "dull it down" slightly rather than leaving the paper bright white. Adding "subtle warms and cools" to the wash can make a large sky area more interesting.
14. Wet-on-Wet Timing: When adding darker waves into the damp water wash, you must practice your timing. Going in too quickly allows the paint to spread too much; waiting too long results in hard edges. You can use a lightweight board to gently fan and hasten the drying process slightly.
15. Maintain Color Consistency in Water: When adding subsequent darker wave details, use the exact same combination of colours (e.g., ultramarine blue and burnt umber) used for the initial sea color. Changing the combination can cause the paint to split or produce "nasty sort of brownish edges".
16. Lift for Soft Reflections: To create lighter, softer reflections (especially for lighter boats), paint the reflection color in, and then use a soft flat brush or paper towel with a horizontal drag to lift the paint off the damp surface.

V. Details, Figures, and Finishing Touches

Use small, dark, or opaque marks to bring the scene to life and establish scale.

17. Quick Figures: To prevent figures from looking "static" or "awkward," paint the legs as quickly as possible. Focus on the position of one leg first, then determine the angle of the second. The more time spent on legs, the more static they look.
18. Ground the Figure: Once the figure is painted, connect the dark shadow to the figure immediately to define the shape and ground it on the quayside. Do the shadow and figure (or the boat side and its reflection) "all as one".
19. Use "Lost and Found" Lines: For long, continuous elements like masts, use a "broken line" technique. Leave small gaps in the line to suggest where the light might be catching the object.
20. Define Boat Edges: Add a dark line across the top of the boat and a dark line along the water's edge to make the vessel look "a lot more boatlike".
21. Apply Gouache Sparingly: Use white gouache (the "icing on top of the cake") to add essential highlights, such as on fenders, ladder tops, or small objects catching the light.
22. Highlight Caution: Be cautious not to "overdo it with the white gouache," especially on background buildings or distant window frames, as too much white attracts excessive attention and can pull the focus away from the main composition.
23. Rigger Brush Consistency: When using a rigger brush with white gouache for fine lines, ensure the right consistency. If the paint is too dry, you get an unsatisfactory dry brush mark; if it is too watery, the line becomes "milky cloudy" and too thick.
24. Add Scale: Include small, distant figures to give a sense of scale and depth to the scene.