Project 1 – Classic Moorland Cottage Scene

Step 1

Now lets have a dramatic picture. As you can see, its a very simply outline drawing underneath this sky, the most important thing about the drawing is that the path gets a lot narrower as it goes further into the distance.

For my sky ash I firstly pre wet the 140lb weight paper using my 1.5″ wash brush. Put a little bit of yellow ochre in the bottom followed by a little bit of burnt sienna in the middle bit above this, immediately followed by a mixture of ultra marine blue and burnt sienna, stating nice and heavy at the top, getting weaker as it comes down.

Let all these colours run together before sucking out the clouds with a damp 1.5″ wash brush.

Step 2

Obviously I cant carry on with my distance hills because my sky is still too wet. So I come further forward and with my 3/4″ wash brush I pre stained the path followed by either side of the path, all with yellow ochre.

Step 3

Now back to my distant hills and a mixture of ultra marine blue and burnt sienna, very weak for the first further away hill, again this was all done with be my 3/4″ wash brush. Once the colour was on I then washed out my brush, squeezed out surplus water and suck a little bit of light out of the hill. Do the same with the second hill but make it a little bit more stronger as it is a little bit nearer.

For the middle distance hill, a mixture of hookers green and burnt sienna fairly weak, paint either side of the distant path and then drop in a little bit of ultra marine blue at the base of this block, again wash out my brush, squeeze out surplus water and take out a little bit of light here and there.

Step 4

Now to the cottage! Very very simple this, just block in the cottage and the walls with raw umber and my No.8 round brush. Notice one side of the cottage is darker than the other. For the light side, just add more water.

Step 5

For the roof of the cottage I used a mixture of ultra marine blue and burnt sienna, but most important this has to be stronger than the mix for the distant hills or you will loose the roof.

Now using my 3.4″ wash brush a mixture of raw umber and ultra marine blue and with the sharp of the brush simply stipple on a few stones on the dark side of the cottage.

Now using a mixture of ultra marine blue and burnt sienna almost black, and my No 3 rigger brush, I filled in the detail on the walls, the windows and chimneys of the cottage and those sticks on top of the walls.

Step 6

Now hookers green and burnt sienna nice and strong and bash on a bit of green into that foreground area either side of the path. Whilst this was still damp, with my 3/4″ wash brush I stoked in a very weak mixture of ultra marine blue and burnt sienna filling in the path area but dragging in a hint of green from either side. This was you have all the colours of the landscape in the path.

At this stage with my No 8 round brush, slightly damp but with no colour, tone down the distant path dragging in a bit of green, just so that its not bright white.

Step 7

For finishing touches, it was again hookers green, burnt sienna but also a touch of ultra marine blue, a nice dark rich green. With my 3/4″ wash brush, daub the paint on and flick upwards to create grasses. Whilst it was still damp I scraped out some grasses with my fingernail.

Now finally with a mixture of ultra marine blue and burnt sienna, just put a little bit of texture into the path. And there we have a lovely strong moorland cottage.