Painting a boat in watercolour

Cobble in Bridlington Harbour

I just loved the bright colours and reflections. A chance to use all of the main watercolour techniques and show that watercolours do not have to be dull and insipid! Starting with a light drawing on stretched Waterford 140 lb.

I soon established the main composition and patterns of reflections. I decided to do the boat first using delicate graduated washes and then glazing over the top to deepen certain areas and shadows. I had masked fine,

light areas, such as the ropes. Aureolin Yellow for the side of the boat and cerulean blue over layed with ultramarine. The red areas were Aureolin yellow, glazed or controlled wet into wet with cadmium orange and then

rose. The reflections were a tone down and so used the same colours but with the addition of yellow ochre, cadmium red and the darks made with indigo and burnt sienna. When the reflections were complete I painted the

rest of the water with controlled wet into wet. Starting with a varied wash of yellow ochre, blending into areas of thin chrome yellow. The blue areas were made of the cerulean and then ultramarine, gradually painted in to give

harder edged waves as the original wash dried. As a penultimate touch, some purple was added into some of the reflections as a foil against the warms and cools.

Finally the masking fluid was removed and the white areas, that remained, carefully tinted. Tips. Look carefully at hard and soft edges, tones and shapes. Do not rub off masking fluid until the surrounding paint is dry!