This watercolor painting landscape demonstration is of a typical Australian farmland scene.

I have taken some liberties with the trees and turned them into light barked gum trees as they suited my demonstration better. I have also moved them closer to the foreground.

In this demo I will be painting around the main tree trunks. This is just one of the techniques one can use in this type of painting. Your could also mask the trunks, paint the background and then remove the dry masking fluid. For a softer look you could paint the background right through the tree trunks. Then you could lift out the trunk shapes with a barely damp brush. This has to be done while the background is still wet however. The wet brush should have most of the water squeezed out of it. Otherwise the paint will not properly lift from the surface of your watercolor paper.

Watercolor Painting Landscape Reference Photo

Required Watercolor Painting Materials

Arches 300gsm Rough (preferred paper for this painting) or Cold Press Watercolour Paper

Round Brushes: Sizes 24 and 16 for larger washes and 12 and 10 for the smaller areas and detail.

Paints: All Winsor and Newton – Cobalt Blue (sky), Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Turquoise, Aureolin, French Ultramarine

Backing board, masking tape, old towel to control wetness of your brushes, etc

Step One: Drawing

Do a loose drawing of the landscape painting we are going to do.

This drawing does not have a lot of detail. It just places key objects within the painting. I use a very light line for the top of the distant hills. In fact I often don’t even put it in if I am going to have a soft edge there to enhance the feeling of space.  Otherwise the pencil mark will show through and not look right with a soft watercolor edge over it.

Continue to: Watercolor Painting Landscape Demonstration Step 2