Painting An Old Barn in Watercolor-2

To make this painting more of a challenge, I chose a sheet of Arches 140 lb. cold press paper. I haven’t use that weight of paper for about 30 years. It tends to “buckle” if you use too much water. It is a full sheet of watercolor paper-22 x 30 inches. 

The first wash was complex. To get the warm light in the clouds and on the roof of the large barn, I painted a wash of Quinacradone Gold mixed with some Cadmium Yellow Medium over the areas in the clouds and the roof and snow on the right.

Timing is critical in watercolor. Too wet and everything runs together. Too dry and you will get a hard edge.
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Clouds have relatively soft edges, so I had to time the addition of the darker grayer side of the clouds and the gray blue of the sky when the yellow wash was still wet,  but not so wet that the colors would run together. That also made it harder to get the soft edges of the clouds behind the barn because I had to paint “around” the roof of the large barn.

I next painted the reds in the barns and waited for everything to dry before going on to the next step.