This tutorial of an easy watercolor village scenery may be perfect for you if you want to paint something simple but slightly challenging for a beginner!
I’ll go over each step of the painting process in detail and hopefully, you’ll learn a thing or two to take with you to your next painting!
Let’s get into it…
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Village outline sketch
Before you start mixing your colors, you need to draw a basic sketch to help guide you in the painting process.
You can use the painting above as a reference.
Start by drawing the horizon line just below the middle of the paper. Using the horizon line as your guide, draw the closest house on the right side.
Next, draw a rough outline of the grass next to the building and continue outlining the paths.
Finish adding the other huts and houses in the distance. Remember, the further away they are the smaller they will be. Don’t make the huts in the back taller than the ones in the front.
Finally, outline the background foliage and the tree next to the house in the front.
Don’t worry about making your sketch too detailed, the key is to outline the shapes so you know where to paint.
Feel free to move elements around or add new ones if you wish.
Color scheme
The color mixtures I used are listed below, however, don’t hesitate to use whatever colors you prefer!
Blue: Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, and Cerulean Blue
Yellow: Yellow ochre, Gamboge, and Lemon yellow
Red: Rose Madder and Pyrrol Scarlet
Neutrals: Paynes Gray and Burnt Umber
- Sky:
a. Blue Mixture: Cobalt blue + Cerulean blue
b. Ultramarine (top of the sky) - Watercolor Village Huts:
a. Gray mixture (for shadows): Ultramarine + a touch of rose madder + a touch of yellow ochre
b. Dark gray: Paynes gray
c. Roof (light color): Yellow ochre + a very small touch of ultramarine
d. Roof (darker color): Yellow ochre + a touch of scarlet + a small touch of ultramarine - Foliage:
a. Background trees: Ultramarine + Gamboge (add more ultramarine for the darker areas)
b. Light green: Cobalt blue + Lemon Yellow
c. Dark green: Cobalt blue + Gamboge + a touch of Paynes gray - Road:
a. Yellow Ochre
b. Redish-brown: Scarlet + Yellow ochre + a touch of ultramarine
c. Burnt umber
Watercolor Village Scenery Tutorial
1. The sky
I wanted the main focus of this painting to be the village homes so I decided to go with a simple blue sky.
Colors for the sky:
- Blue mixture: Cobalt blue + Cerulean blue
- Ultramarine
Start by wetting the sky and the background foliage areas with clean water. Make sure to avoid wetting the roofs and huts.
Next, paint wisps across the sky with the blue mixture (cobalt blue + cerulean blue), then dilute the mixture towards the horizon to make it lighter.
Leave some white spaces between strokes.
While the paper is still wet, add some ultramarine to the blue mixture and paint some strokes into the top of the sky to make it slightly darker. Remember not to cover up the white spaces.
Colors for the background trees:
- Gamboge + Ultramarine
- Yellow ochre + Ultramarine
While the paper is still wet, start dropping in a light green mixture of yellow ochre and ultramarine (more yellow) just above the village huts (you can add Gamboge but it’s not necessary).
For this step use a creamy consistency for your color mixture so paint doesn’t spread too far.
Add more ultramarine to the mixture for a slightly darker green, and drop it into the crevices between the huts.
Let the background dry…
2. Village homes
Now that the background is done it’s time to paint the watercolor village scenery.
Start by painting the roofs with yellow ochre, I added a very small touch of ultramarine to tone it down.
In this step, I made sure to paint the roofs in two layers.
For the first layer, I added a simple wash of yellow ochre + touch of ultramarine
Don’t make them too symmetrical, the huts in the back should be less detailed and smaller.
For the second layer, make the color mixture slightly darker by adding a touch of scarlet and painting some lines in the direction of the roof.
Make sure the homes in the distance aren’t too detailed.
The next step is to paint the windows and add some color to the walls of the village homes. Here, I used a gray mixture for the windows, doors, and shadows by mixing:
- Gray: Ultramarine + a touch of rose madder + a touch of yellow ochre
To paint the walls use a diluted mix of the gray used to paint the walls with slightly less blue.
I made sure not to cover the wall and to paint in uneven patches as shown below:
3. Foliage
While the village huts are drying it’s time to paint the foliage.
Start by wetting the areas of the grass with clean water.
Continue painting the first layer with a light green by mixing cobalt blue and lemon yellow and then dropping it into the wet paper.
You can see in the image below how I left some spaces in between brushstrokes:
4. Road
While the paper is still wet I drop in shades of dark green into the light green areas then paint the first wash of the road with yellow ochre.
Once again, I was careful not to cover up the lighter areas:
Next, I drop in some reddish brown into the road and then let the first layer dry.
- Redish brown mixture: Scarlet + Yellow ochre + a touch of ultramarine
In the meantime, paint the big tree to the right of the village home.
Here, I started with a light green like before then dropped some dark green in some areas:
5. Final details of the village scenery
To add the final details add some dark green into the foliage and reddish brown streaks onto the road:
The next step is to finish painting the bigger village home in the foreground. For this, I painted the shadow using the same gray mixture as before.
To paint the windows and door I used Paynes gray to make it darker than the homes in the distance. I made sure to leave white lines between them for more detail.
The tree trunk was painted using burnt umber:
Using a smaller brush add some dark green texture to the tree with the dry brush technique and the painting will be complete!
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