1. Everyone seems fascinated by the ripply water reflections in my Lake Powell paintings. This is a technique I learned from the master himself, David Drummond. But in the is sequence I will demonstrate my approach to painting the red sandstone cliffs.

2. After laying in the sky, using the wet into wet watercolor technique, I move directly to the rocks below. My objective is to create the medium and lighter values and develop some sense of texture as well as subtle color variations. I am using a #8 round synthetic brush and lay it on its side. This not only covers a broader area, but it allows the brush to skip (scumble) over the paper for a textural effect. I am using yellow ochre and Quinacridone Coral from Daniel Smith Co. I let the pigments mingle freely as I go.

3. After applying the basic underglazes I let them dry completely before starting my darker shadows.

Notice I have already brought some of the rock color into the water reflection area.

The cliff face on the left is in shadow, so I use darker pigments. As the paint starts to set up, I will flick some clear water on the surface to add texture.

4. Now I move to the cliffs on the right and begin to establish the dark shadows. Remember that the shadows on sandstone are often warm due to reflected light. Here I am using Quinacridone Sienna, with a touch of Cad Red light, and cooling it with Quinacridone Magenta. Since the paper is dry I can get nice hard edges. However, I immediately soften some of the edges on the left side by touching the edge with clear water and letting it blend softly.

5. In the completed painting you can see how I built up texture by moving to progressively darker paint applications. Notice that the cast shadows in the right-hand cliffs are bluer and darker, while the core shadow picks up reflected light and is much more orange.

6. The finished painting.

"Deep Blue and Orange - Lake Powell"
8" x 12" watercolor by Roland Lee