In the second of five articles on capturing light effects in watercolours, Catherine Beale uses aerial perspective to create a stand-out focal point
This second article in my series uses a hillside in the English Lake District to look at aerial perspective – the perception of the landscape becoming more blue with increasing distance. It also demonstrates how to generate a clear focal point by using tonal contrast. In the demonstration, below, the focal point is a white farmhouse ‘silhouetted’ against dark trees.
STAGE ONE
I used my own edited photographs combined with memories of my visit and my imagination to paint this scene. The small line of buildings sat below the Old Man of Coniston near Lake Coniston. I was drawn to the power of the landscape: the way the steep hillside dwarfed the farm, so I chose to paint in portrait format from a low perspective that emphasised the height of the hills.
I planned my painting in 2B soft pencil, ignoring details for now. I looked at the broad areas of different tone created by slopes crossing the hillside and defined their edges zig-zagging across my painting. This was not a sketch but a number of clear boundaries that would guide my placement of paint. I enclosed the farm with a single rectangular area that I marked with a ‘w’ for ‘white’ to remind me to keep the paper dry and free from paint. It was my focal point and it would appear in sharp focus, using maximum tonal contrast and crisp edges to draw the eye to the sparkling white. The pencil is usually covered up by paint but can be rubbed out later if necessary from under most paint colours
► STAGE TWO
I started by mapping out the scenery in loose washes to create an atmospheric background. I brought the palette and water close to the right side of my painting to limit unplanned drips and tilted the painting away from me to encourage paint colours to run towards the top of the page and mingle. I wetted the sky area with a sheen of clean water leaving a gap of dry paper before the horizon. I loaded my brush with liquid turquoise and, holding it almost flat to the paper, I pulled it across the top and off the side of the painting. This prevented blobs of colour dropping unevenly from the brush. I added liquid ultramarine and a touch of umber. The soft area of watery colour ran gently through the water and away from the puddle’s edge avoiding a hard paint line developing and helping the cloud colours mingle
STAGE THREE
Next, I wetted each slo
