The master watercolourist shares essential techniques for adding depth and realism to your watercolour paintings in this accessible guide. In Perspective Depth and Distance, watercolourist and teacher Geoff Kersey demonstrates how to use line, tone, colour, and detail to create captivating landscapes. With this practical guide, you will learn to capture the beauty of mist-draped mountains and dense woodlands. You will also learn to paint boats, buildings, and natural features that seem to recede into the distance. This volume includes seven step-by-step projects with inspiration and ideas for your own original landscapes. It also features techniques for linear and aerial perspective.
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I have lost count of the amount of times I have painted this beautiful scene in the Lake District. I love the way it changes so much with the seasons and the way the steep hillside in the background focuses our attention on the bridge and cluster of buildings.
YOU WILL NEED
Rough paper, 560 x 380mm (22 x 15in) Masking fluid
Naples yellow
White gouache
Light red
Cobalt blue
Rose madder
Raw sienna
Burnt sienna
Lemon yellow
Aureolin
French ultramarine
Cerulean blue
Phthalo blue
Old paintbrush
2B pencil
Putty eraser
Soap
12mm (½in) flat brush
Round brushes: no. 16, no. 8, no. 6, no. 4, no. 2
Kitchen towel
The finished painting
Source photograph
This photograph is a little dark, but it still has plenty of information from which to construct the painting, showing the foreground banks and tree, the midground bridge and buildings, and the distant hillsides. As long as your photograph shows the main elements in sufficient detail, it can serve as a source of reference – the rest is up to your painting.
Preliminary sketch
Here, the photograph has been used to inform the sketch, which I have used to explore changes to the subject, such as adding more light on the hills and the bridge to emphasise their importance to the composition.
1 Use a 2B pencil to draw in the basic shapes. Use a putty eraser to soften and knock back the lines in the distance, then apply masking fluid generously to the roofs and sides of the midground buildings. Use slightly rough strokes to avoid it looking smooth and modern. Mask the arch of the bridge, including the underside, in the same way. Use finer, longer strokes for the trees and the shingle bank in the foreground.
2 Prepare a peach mix of Naples yellow and light red, and dilute to a watery consistency. Prepare a second wash of cobalt blue, and a grey mix of cobalt blue and rose madder with a touch of light red. Next, use a damp natural sponge to wet the whole sky, working over the top of the hill too. Use the no. 16 brush to apply the peach mix over the lower part of the wet area.
3 Rinse the brush. Pick up cobalt blue and work wet-into-wet down from the top of the painting into the sky area using the side of the brush. This allows you to cover the sky quickly. While the paint remains wet, touch in some of the grey mix across the top if the sky. Let the whole sky dry completely before you continue.
4 Create a second grey mix of cobalt blue and rose madder with a touch of light red, making it stronger in tone this time by diluting it less. Make a sandy mix of raw sienna and burnt sienna, and a light green mix from aureolin and cobalt blue with a hint of light red. Finally, create a fairly thick mix of dark green from phthalo blue, burnt sienna and a little light red. Using the no. 16 round brush, apply cobalt blue to the crest of the hill. Touch in a little of the dilute grey mix to vary the hue.
5 Continue laying in colour on the hill, introducing the sandy mix about halfway down, and the light green mix at the base. Use strokes that describe the slope of the hill.
6 Drop in the fir trees while the paint remains damp using the tip of the no. 8 brush and the dark green mix. Ensure the trees taper away to a point at the top. Use the stronger grey mix to add darker shapes between the groups of trees, applying the paint with the side of the brush to ensure softness.
7 Pick up neat lemon yellow on the tip of a no. 4 brush and touch in details at the base of the fir trees while they remain wet. This suggests smaller bushes in front of the firs.
8 Fill in the area beneath the bridge with the light green, sandy and dilute grey mixes, applying the paint with the no. 8 brush. Change to the no. 4 brush and work the dark green mix down to the waterline, adding pure lemon yellow wet-in-wet as highlights.
9 Wet a no. 8 brush. Run it over a small area of the crest of the hill. Gently wipe the water away with clean kitchen paper, wo...
