Landscape Sketching in Watercolor and Ink (Skillshare)

1. Download the photograph of "Key West at Night" from the Class Resources on the right hand side.
2. Look at this photograph (or one of your own) and sketch 3 - 5 thumbnail sketches to find your favorite composition. This is just for practice since we will all end up painting the same composition decided upon in the 5th video lesson.
3. Draw a value scale and shade in values from 1 - 5. Practice seeing values by numbering the areas of your thumbnail sketches based on the value you see there. Next, use hatching and cross-hatching to shade all the areas of a thumbnail sketch or two.
4. Lightly sketch a larger-scale version of our landscape composition. Pick a deep color of watercolor (it doesn't have to be black!) and paint in the values starting from the lightest and working towards the darkest. Remember to preserve the white of the page for your lighter values. This is the step where you plan your approach to the final full-color sketch. It's okay to make mistakes on this step, just take note of them so you can fix or avoid them in the next stage of our project. Post a pic of your value sketch to the projects below so we can appreciate the many different monochromatic sketches you've all made.
5. Lightly sketch another larger-scale version of our landscape composition. Follow along with the video lesson (pausing when you need to) and mix, test and apply all the colors to this bright landscape sketch.
6. Add a touch of pen and ink to your sketch to sharpen areas and get practice incorporating different mediums into one painting.
7. Post your final sketches to the projects page! Remember, this is landscape SKETCHING, so these are allowed to be, even MEANT to be rough, loose and free. Mine are quite loose and messy! These are not perfected paintings. They are glimpses into one another's sketchbooks and just one more result of practicing with watercolor and ink. Feel free to post sketches from your own photographs as well as this particular painting. I would love to see you apply what you learned to a completely different landscape!

Hopefully this project has inspired you to work freely in your sketchbooks, to paint more often, to take the time and steps in the process to improve upon your composition and ability to see all the different values in a scene. Thank you so much for participating and painting along with me. I hope to see you in another class soon.