How to Paint a Simple Watercolor Landscape: Skies, Water & Trees

Hello! Today we are painting a beautiful, bright green landscape featuring lush grass, foliage, and a lovely country pond leading right into the foreground. If you have found painting dramatic skies with big, fluffy clouds or managing soft water reflections a bit tricky in the past, don't worry at all! We are going to break everything down into simple, easy-to-manage steps that make watercolor painting both clear and fun. In this tutorial, I'll guide you through my favorite reliable techniques, including: • How to thoroughly wet your paper (front and back) to keep your surface working perfectly longer. • Mixing a fresh, clean sky with Cobalt Blue, and adding subtle warmth with Cadmium Orange and Permanent Rose. • Capturing simple, believable distant elements like hills, buildings, a little shed, and even a few simple cows using basic rectangular shapes. • Utilizing a hog hair fan brush to lift, flick, and tap realistic tree shapes, poplars, and foreground grasses without overworking the details. • The secret to painting water reflections that look natural by slightly dulling your colors so they merge beautifully with the water. Whether you are just getting started or looking to polish your basic skills, this landscape project is a wonderful way to practice brush control and color mixing. Grab your brushes, and let's get painting! If you enjoyed this tutorial, please give the video a thumbs up, leave a comment to let me know how your painting turned out, and subscribe to the channel for more easy watercolor guides. If you'd like to support my channel and help me keep creating these tutorials, please consider supporting me on Patreon! Patreon.com/joecartwright Video Chapters 0:00 - Introduction & Landscape Overview 0:37 - Initial Pencil Drawing & Planning 2:19 - Preparing the Paper & Wetting the Back 2:36 - Mixing the Colors (Sky, Grass & Greens) 5:33 - Drawing Simple Cows with Easy Shapes 6:24 - Painting a Fresh Cobalt Blue Sky 7:50 - Creating Soft, Fluffy Cloud Shapes 8:33 - Softening the Clouds with Warm Tints 9:54 - Mixing and Lightening the Distant Hills 12:04 - Painting the Distant Hills & Waiting for the Right Wetness 14:48 - Painting Middle Distance Trees & Foliage 15:56 - Laying Down the Lush Green Grass 19:12 - Adding Texture & Detail to the Foreground 21:12 - Discussing the Rule of Water Reflections 22:25 - Using a Size 8 Brush for Middle Distance Trees 23:33 - Painting Poplars with a Fan Brush Technique 24:54 - Using a Hog Hair Fan Brush for Reeds & Edge Grass 26:31 - Adding Tree Shadow & Form Variation 28:38 - How to Paint Muddy Water & Blue Sky Reflections 32:05 - Painting Tree Reflections in the Pond 33:48 - Darkening Pond Shadows & Muddy Edges 36:28 - Adding Ripples & Water Highlights 38:54 - Painting the Distant Shed Roof & Walls 40:24 - Painting & Highlighting the Cows 42:49 - Foreground Grass Shorthand Techniques 46:52 - Painting Distant Birds for Scale 48:07 - Lifting Paint for Cloud Reflections 51:06 - Wrap-up & Support on Patreon Materials used: Paper: Arches Cold Pressed 37 cm x 27 cm Paints – All Winsor and Newton: French Ultramarine Cobalt Blue Cobalt Turquoise Permanent Rose Cadmium Orange Aureolin Burnt Sienna Raw Sienna Raw Umber Brushes: Round brushes, size 12 and 8 Large Mop brush for wetting the back of the paper Stiff hog hair fan brush Waterproof backing board held at about 20 degrees