Moorland Farm h h o o u u s s e e (Free Watercolour Worksheet) Aim: To paint a sprawling farm building on the edge of the moor with a cool clear evening light.
Objectives: Practice buildings Practice colour mixing Experience pen/ink techniques .Paints to Use: Raw Sienna Ultramarine Burnt Sienna Also useful: A fine pen, quill, or sharpened bamboo stick and a dark mix of watercolour paint, or ink. (or you can outline with a fine brush) PREPARATION FOR PAINTING: 10 mins 1 . I always suggest to doodle a thumbnail sketch or two to get the feel of the subject. Be aware of the light direction and shadows. 2 . Work out your colours and shades in a preparatory swatch i.e. farm wall colour, near wall colours, rusty roofing, and distance. 3 . Outline the subject on your watercolour paper in pencil.(See colour template) Always tape down your paper to help avoid cockling, ideally wetting and gum taping. Check out on youtube if not sure. PAINTING 1 . Turn your paper upside down and tilted, lay in a medium strength wash of Raw Sienna from the horizon fading to nothing at the top of the sky. Use this mix, pale, for the foreground walls and grass, but here on the walls, add patches of pale Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna . Dry the paper. 2 . Turn the paper the right way up and tilt again to lay in a pale wash of medium strength Ultramarine for the sky, fading into the Raw Sienna wash. Dry. 3 . Distant hill: pure pale Burnt Sienna. 4 . Flat, marshy area just above the right-hand wall : pale Raw Sienna/Burnt Sienna mix. 5 . Just paint the farmhouse using various shades of Burnt Sienna/ Ultramarine (grey-brown to grey- green. Leave a white space for the right-hand top window. Don’t worry about sharp lines at this stage. Keep the chimney vague wet into wet. 6 . The other extra buildings have rusty roofs. Burnt Sienna: Dry brush where needed. 7 . Add a little more variety to the wall colours, but keep generally pale and mossy looking. 8 . O.K. That’s the painting done. (All looks a bit vague at this stage) 9 . Use some dark ink, or mix up some near black paint: Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. 10. Now it’s just pure enjoyment with that pen or fine brush you have been saving,.. to get the sharpness of lines not too heavy to start with.. gently does it.. vary the lines you make, trees, wall, farm, buildings.. .Don’t forget the crows? (There is always a few on the farm at dusk!)
So there you have it, my painting on a cold winters evening. Remember this is my interpretation and every painting is different. At least these are the stages and paints I used. You can adjust! Also see my free snow moorland farm project. I had adjusted the above painting to make it into a snow scene at: