It was Malcolm Gladwell who said in his book ‘Outliers’ that you need ten thousand hours of practice to become an expert in any cognitively complex field of study. I think watercolour painting fits in there. He goes on to point out, that’s about 4 hours a day for ten years.
Since our paint group cancelled their morning painting session, Susan and I met at my place to get in that all important practice time. I worked on some skills while Susan painted. Susan is an excellent storyteller in addition to being a talented artist. She is the author of the blog Travels with Suze. If you are interested in Acadian history or travel check it out.
Mist and water effects are two tough watercolour skills to master.
Making this treeline appear to “float” in the mist required a mixture of ultramarine and cobalt blue pigments with just a touch of medium red both for the sky and snow.
The tops of the trees were three layers of a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. Lifting off followed each layer where it was needed to diffuse the pigments in the trees and landscape.
This second skill builder was inspired by fellow blogger Graham McQuade’s recent post, The Ways of Water. Using a Chinese brush like a calligraphy pen (thanks for the tip, Graham), I tried to replicate the image of water from his post. The first one was a disaster and will never see the light of day. This one is a better imitation and there’s room for improvement but it’s a start!
Overall, it was a solid morning of skill building, painting and telling stories! Let me know how you manage to get in your 10,000 hours.
Fieldnotes 
Lovely – I think these are very successful.
Thank-you, Anna!
Thanks for the mention. The water is coming along. I let my underpainting of the rolling waveforms dry before going in with the darks and tried to get the biggest marks in the foreground to give a feeling of recession. It looks like you went in on damp paper which gives a different mark – maybe one you prefer.
Yes, you’re right I did go in when it was still damp. Also I will try some perspective on the marks next time. I really appreciate the advice. Thank-you.