Bymon – an easy exercise

På Svenska

This place is called Bymon and is located in northern Jämtland. It is an idyll during the summer months, This is a fairly simple painting, without frills and oddities. The colors you should use are the following: Cobalt blue (if you do not have cobalt blue, I think you should buy it, it is a very nice blue color that despite its milkiness is very useful.). Some yellow color (it works with any yellow, I myself like to use a warmer type), Raw Sienna and some cold red, I used Quinacridone Rose.

As always, you start with the part of the picture that is at the back of the painting, that means the sky in this case. It may seem unnecessary to paint the whole surface blue because only small parts of the sky are visible behind the trees on the finished painting, but because the green color you will use for the trees is affected by the blue color behind, and you do not know where it will be painted trees and sky respectively, it is much better to paint the entire surface blue. So: paint with blue paint around the houses and down to the grass edge.

When the blue color has dried, it is time to paint the green with a color mixture of yellow and blue. If you want to distinguish one tree from another (like the light tree on the far left of the image), you must let the paint dry before painting the next tree. Otherwise, most of the trees are painted with a kind of wet in wet technique. Mix in a little red color if you want a darker green color.

Keep in mind that contours in the foreground are created when you paint the background, it is very important that you create a credible grass structure at the bottom of the green trees. You should always think about what is in front of a surface when you paint in watercolor. You can not cover a mistake with another color. So reserve both houses and grass straws when you paint the green.

The color of the house is not so easy to mix, but it works with red, blue and raw sienna. You should also mix a black color for shadows. Paint the whole house with your paint mixture and immediately, while the paint is still wet, put some shadows under the roof. It is important that the shadow color flows out slightly so that it looks natural. Allow to dry before painting a thin shadow over the left part of the house. Do the same with the little house in the background.

The grass is painted quite flat, if your raw sienna is too yellow, you can make it more gray by mixing in a little of the shade color from before. The paint should be very diluted. Paint, if you like, a little darker raw sienna in the lower part of the grass surface. You can also suggest the timber in the house with some horizontal lines, but not too strong lines. The chimney and the clothesline are also painted.

The plate on the chimney is painted and some tree trunks in the background. The tree trunks are just suggested, they should not be too distinct.