Snake River demo, step-by-step

Snake River Landscape

Final, Snake River painting. The final step is to use some pen and ink to add some details but be careful not to add too much. I suggest that you zoom in on the image so you can get a better idea of what I’ve done. It’s really just a lot of scribbling and very loose calligraphy.

This landscape is pretty classic with mountains, river, trees and a beautiful sky. It is painted with only eight colors, three brushes, and a fade-proof pen. The paper used is a quarter sheet of Arches 100% cotton rag watercolor, 140 pound, cold press.

Step 1. After marking off my paper (9.75 x 13.75) and taping it to my painting board, I quickly sketched the main subjects. Then I painted the sky with two shades of blue, Cerulean and Cobalt, leaving white for the clouds. I used some plain water to blur the edges a bit. I also used some variation of the sky colors

Step 1. After quickly sketching in the main subjects, I paint the sky with two shades of blue. The river is painted with the same mixture but I’ve added a little green I then let this layer thoroughly dry before tackling the next step.

but added a little Sap Green for the water.

I generally let my paper dry between painting stages but often speed up this process with a hairdryer.

Step 2. Next I painted in the big mountain using a various shades of blue, greens, violet and some burnt sienna. The medium Chinese brush is good for this as it holds lots of paint and the tip can be used to give the impression of pine trees. I painted the valley behind and the foreground with a mixture of Naples Yellow and Burnt Sienna. You can also see that I painted a very light wash of

Step 2. Here I’ve painted the main mountain in various shades of blue, green, violet with some burnt sienna to add color. The foreground is painted with Naples yellow, mixed with Raw Sienna, a little violet and green. And the distant valley is painted in similar mixtures. The trunk of the main tree is painted in light washes of yellow and violet.

Naples yellow and violet for the trunk and branches of the main tree.

Step 3. Then I painted the distant mountains in shades of blue and violet. The lighter shades gives the impression of distance. Painting around the main tree to leave room for brighter colors, I added darker shades for the shadow side of the trees.

Step 3. Here I’ve added the distant mountains, painting carefully around the areas of the main tree that I want to leave blank. Then darker greens are mixtures of blues and sap green and added to give shape to the main mountain, and to paint the shaded areas of the tree leaves in the foreground.

Step 4. This is the step when things really start to shape up. Mixtures of Lemon Yellow, Sap Green and occasionally Burnt Sienna make many shades of green. More bushes and trees were added to the valley floor.

Step 4. This is where the painting really starts to take shape. Using mixtures of yellows, greens, blues, burnt sienna, I paint in the leaves and add details to the valley and other trees.

Step 5. The last stage of painting is to add some darks to bring out more detail and contrasts. This includes the trees, the distance mountain, the valley and adding some more interest to the water.

Step 5. This is the final stage of painting. I have added details to the trees, some more texture to the grass, and more details to the valley and along the banks of the river. I’ve also added some reflections in the water, enough to add interest but not overdo it.

Step 6. The finishing touches are added with pen and ink. You don’t need to go over everything, but just to bring out some details. The eye fills in more details than you actually add to the painting.

Snake River, original photo upon which the painting was based. As you can see, I eliminated many of the shrubs in the foreground to better draw attention to the river and the mountain.

These are the simple supplies that I used for this painting. Eight colors: cobalt blue, cerulean blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, cobalt violet, Naples yellow, and cadmium lemon yellow. Three brushes. My favorite 35 year old Liquitex flat, and two Chinese-style brushes. Plus a Uniball Vision Elite black ink pen which does not fade.

Palette for Snake River demo. As you can see, although I have many colors at my disposal, I usually stick with a limited number for each painting. This helps the painting to be more cohesive as the same colors can be carried throughout.