Art Lesson: Watercoloring the Tractor Sketch.

Hello, friends.

A couple weeks back, we went through the process of sketching up some tractors.

This was the picture I was sketching from.

Today I wanted to share the process of using watercolors to paint the dried, inked image.

First, I used a mustard yellow wash to fill in the ground

and a lighter yellow on the tire hubs and the tractor.

I then added a green wash to the tractor and to the farmer's shirt and cap.

Next I made a very light gray wash using red, blue, and green and began painting the tire...

and loosely painted a background of trees.

I could see that there is three layers to this field:

the forefront layer that has a grassy look,

a cut layer of grass,

and a distant uncut stand of grass.

I made a green wash to paint the uncut distant grass.

I finished shading the tires, the exhaust pipe, some touches of black on the tractor,

and the piece of farm machinery being pulled by the tractor.

Next I decided to create the grassy front part of the field by loosely painting streaks of green,

some darker than others.

To created a faint look of cut grass for the layer of field behind the tractor,

I painted a wash of green and then painted swatches of a reddish green lines

and then dabbed them up somewhat with a tissue.

I create a division of the cut grass with the still standing grass in the background by painting a line of darker greenish red with strokes going up loosely, like grass would grow.

To darken the background trees, I first made a reddish black,

almost a purple, and did a wash of that over a section

and then went over it with sections of green.

Once this was complete, I changed to a very light blue wash and started the sky at the top and worked down toward the tree line.

I made a skin color with orange, yellow, and white and used a wash of this on parts of the farmer's face and arm as well as the child's face and legs as they stood out in the picture.

At this point, I also used blue on the farmer's pants and child's clothes with this same selective area painting.

Using some dull gray left-over from the tree background in the paint tray,

I put some shading in the yellow tire hub.
I also touched a few areas on the tractor with a reddish green to lightly shade areas as needed.

At this point, I sat back and looked at the painting.

 Something about it was not right to me.

 

I felt like the child's head was too small for his body.

I had a choice to leave it or try to fix it.

Perhaps I should learn to leave some things as they are,

but I couldn't let this one go.

I mixed some white, heavy on the brush and enlarged the head where I could see there was a white patch in the picture.  I added some blue, some brown for the hair, and a curl of dull white for the ear.

 

 I decided at this point it was good as it was and that I had better stop painting.

I painted this for my husband for his birthday as a checkbook cover.

(A plastic, clear cover that I found through a craft catalog years ago,

something similar to the one at the end of this post.)

Although this isn't perfect, I am enjoying learning to work with watercolors.
It is a rewarding working with a paint that you enjoy.

 I am glad the painting turned out in a way I feel happy with on a gift for my husband...

he deserves it. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

(I have added a few advertisements to the side of the blog for those who want to know the products that I use or think are useful... just trying to be helpful.  Of course, if you purchase anything from the links, I will be paid a little something, which is always helpful in funding my home and art supplies,  a helpful gesture! :)
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Linking to these parties: Jenniferrizzo.com,

Paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com,

Chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot.com,

Shabbynest.blogspot.com 

Craftberrybush.com,