1. I love painting the texture of red sandstone, especially with the long, runny streaks caused by the erosion of water. This is fairly easy in watercolor using a combination of dry brush, splattering, and actually letting the pigment drip down the upturned paper,

2. I am using a full 22 x 30 sheet of Arches 140 lb. cold presse watercolor paper for this painting. I first soaked it in the bath tub, then stapled it to my backing board. When dry I first lighlty sketched in the shapes of the cliffs using a 4h pencil, then started the painting by using a wet into wet technique to paint the sky area.

3. While the sky is drying I move down to the foreground rocks and begin a very bold lay-in of color with a one-inch flat brush. I use both wet into wet and scumbling techniques to establish the rough texture of the rocks. I plan to darken the color with additional layers of paint when this is dry.

4. A close-up allows you to see method of creating texture on the rocks. As the pigment starts to dry, I deliberately creat small back runs or oozles by loading my brush with clear water and splattering it across the surface. You can see the nice random effect I can get using this watercolor technique.

5. I use the same techniques on the distant rocks and cliffs being careful to preserve the whiles along the sunny edges. I also add some of the streaks on the cliff walls.

6. Now that I have most of the cliffs established, I can see where my reflections will be in the water. I first sketch them in with the 4H pencil trying to create a sense of distance by narrowing the intervals as we recede into space.

7. After painting the reflections, I fine-tune the rest of the painting adding additional glazes and detail in the foreground rocks.

"Lake Powell Cliffs"
22 x 30 Transparent Watercolor
by Roland Lee

Click for purchase information