Whitewater

Shelter
Watercolour and Ink on Paper
220mm x 165mm (8.5" x 6.5")

Castleton on a cold wet February day in 2014. The ducks were sheltering from the worst of the wind and rain in the lee of the wall.

Whitewater is the fourth topic in the "The Look of Transparency" chapter of Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor by Claudia Nice.

I'm getting into the swing of using Claudia's book. Initially, I use the topic as a prompt to find objects or photos to paint - this helps to limit any dithering over a subject. I then read Claudia's notes and apply her suggestions to my subjects. The topic included an image of Claudia's partially complete picture. This helped me to understand her approach.

The initial wash for the white-water worked well, but I made a glaring mistake with the stream. I painted long strokes in the water's direction of travel towards the waterfall. This made the stream look as though it was on a 45° slope. In the second wash and ink drawing I used horizontal lines to neutralise this effect and to emphasise the calmness and flatness of the water before it reaches the precipice.