This painting is going to be a really wet job, I have painted this theme before but I really like the composition and the figures are larger so I can give them some personality, I am using 140lb rough paper. I will just wet the top of the paper leaving the figures and the foreground dry, if not I will run into lots of trouble holding the shapes, with the board angle so upright.
I flood in a wash of cobalt blue and permanent rose madder and just let it run down the paper, the only concern I have is to make sure the paint actually runs to the edge of the figures but doesn’t completely cover them. I do want to make sure that the paint does get all of the way to the edge of the figure and I brush in blue for the water and make sure it is darker than the sky. I need the water painted so the next step works and the reflection bleeds down into the water. I’m using a no. 16 Silver Black Velvet round brush
Using a fairly heavy wash of permanent rose, or any rose really, skips green and cobalt blue I flood in a rich wash over the distant hill and let it run down into the water. The trick is to remember that the paper is already wet so you don’t have to use a ton of water in your mix, just enough so it will run down the paper. I darken the mix with a little ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson to get the darker pieces in the reflection. I do try to keep some random slivers of white paper, but that is a hard thing to do.
I paint the foreground in a dark wet mix of new gamboge, alizarin crimson, and burnt umber trying to get the edge of the foreground to merge with the water, creating a nice edge, I then begin to watch this mix and wait until it loses its glisten. I am going to scrap with a knife and my little scraper but I have to wait to lift and scrap until the timing is right, too soon and it all goes awry.
I scrape the weed smake some lifts in the water, the lifts in the water didn’t work well I just didn’t have the timing right. I add the background trees with a number 4 rigger with a medium dark cool grey tone and over-brush the branches with skips green still using the rigger but pulling and pushing it sideways across the paper with a fanning technique
I lightly scrap a few rocks on the distant shoreline and paint the figures using a number 8 Silver Black Velvet brush, I’m using new gamboge, yellow ochre, for the main figures coat and ultramarine blue and burnt umber for his pants paint the jacket and pants and the same time, let them merge. his face is yellow ochre, cobalt blue, and a hint of rose. I really take my time with the figures and add several layers of paint to affect the feeling of shadows and light by leaving some pieces of white paper. I take a knife blade and scrape out a few little rectangles of light in the weeds. I think this was fun. Have a go at some fairly wet paintings it will do you good.
When you look at where I positioned the figures you will notice that it is in the upper left quadrant this is a good location compositionally it is the strongest contrast of value and where the sharpest lines, hardest edges, and most vibrant color. Therefore, the center of interest, always put your figures in a good location, hopefully not the middle.