Debbie Homewood
Watercolour Artist

Watercolour Demonstration

If I am doing a full sheet of rocks, pines and water, I like to work with complementary colours. After a good sketch, I usually tone the entire page with some variation of a pinky orange, graduating the wash, depending on the composition. When this is dry I then paint the main subject matter in its complementary colours, paying attention to different areas and varying the colours accordingly. For instance with a large pine, I will have the reference at hand and paint the entire tree in pinks, reds, oranges and purples. I then begin to paint in the actual colours, mixing all my greens on my palette and using the complementary colour to get darker tones, as needed.

I follow the same technique for the sky. As the orange is already down, I can go in with blues and the complementary colour glows through, filling the sky with light. The clouds are the tinted underpainting, with some form given by blues and greys.