Exclusive: Heathland Watercolor Base

A trip to the Dutch heathlands resulted in this painting. I’m planning to do further drawing and painting steps on it.

Heathland WIP

Work in Progress step – about 50% done… I hope.

There is a lot of tweaking left. I especially don’t like the sharpness. For the preview of this post I did a blur (so that non-patreons don’t get too much of a view). And I like the effect of the very strong focus. I’ll go somewhere in the middle – with more selective blurring, for example with the far away objects more blurred than the center.

blur version

The blurred version I did to hide the pic from non-paying eyes. It’s a nice effect I might try to emulate… working the existing color around somehow.

What I’m planning to do still:

  • Blurring non-focus areas.
  • Adding some more vivid color in small spots.
  • Removing the repetitiveness of the leaves. It can stay stylized, but it needs more visual interest.
  • Drawing of the tree – likely just black and white.
  • I might also add a person as from the reference picture.

The figure adds some interest. But it will be tricky to layer on, and to stylize her so that it looks fitting. I’ll see how this goes.

Reference

Reference picture I will use for the trees. Though it’s not quite the spot from where I painted.