painting a mountain climber

Watercolour painting of a climber in the mountains

We're finishing our month of big, snowy mountains with this painting from Fiordland in New Zealand. It's from a photo I took of my husband back in 2010. This is on one of our many mountaineering trips in this beautiful and wild area just south of where we live.

We'll put together the skills we've already covered in the last few lessons on painting mountains and work with just 4 colours. It's quite a bold scene, with a small human element, which adds a bit of movement and gives the mountains a sense of scale and grandeur.

Happy painting!

Full step-by-step tutorial on my Patreon.

aoraki / mt cook at sunset

Watercolour painting of a sunset over Aoraki / Mt Cook

We're back to New Zealand's highest peak this week. This time for one of New Zealand's most iconic and famous views - Aoraki / Mt Cook with Lake Pukaki in the foreground. And it's a sunset too - little happy dance ;-)

It's time to have some fun with all the lovely sunset colours on your palette to create the glowing sky and then use those colours on the sunlit snow and in the reflections in the water. The rest of the scene we paint in neutrals, so that the sunset colours really glow.

Happy painting!

Full video tutorial, reference photo and drawing to trace on Patreon.

Thanks to Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash for the reference photo.

painting aoraki / mt cook in watercolour

Watercolour painting of Aoraki / Mt Cook

 

This month on Patreon is all about painting mountains. The big snowy kind! For our first lesson we take a trip to near my home in New Zealand, and paint our highest peak - Aoraki / Mt Cook. In this scene we zoom in right close up on the mountain and paint it's summit peaks.

We start with a little bit of theory where I explain how to use a very simple tonal value scale and directional strokes to create the illusion of 3-dimensional form. Then we use just 3 colours to paint the scene.

Thanks to Jamie Davies on Unsplash for the reference photo.

Full lesson, reference photo and drawing to trace here.
View a lesson preview on YouTube.