Capturing the diversity of a mountain gouache landscape is a rewarding challenge. This tutorial walks you step-by-step through creating your own mountain lake scene, highlighting techniques for texture in the clouds and grass, mixing realistic colour, atmospheric perspective and details. Here’s how I did it.
Supplies You’ll Need
For this painting, I used:
- Gouache paints: (Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Permanent Green, Ivory Black)
- 300gsm watercolour paper
- Pencils for sketching
- Soft round brush
- A flat brush for blocking in colours
- Water, a palette, and paper towels
I sprayed a little bit of water into the wells of the colours, to keep them wet throughout the session, and I mixed the colours as I went.
Sketch the Composition
I began by lightly sketching the scene onto the watercolour paper, marking where the fells, lake, and grassy areas would sit. Keep your lines faint, just enough to guide your brushstrokes later. Considering the composition, I wanted the mountain shapes to dominate the mid 2/3 section of the artwork. The grassy banks act as leading lines, shifting the viewer’s eyes towards the horizon.
Paint the Sky Base
I used a flat brush to apply a gradient wash of gouache for the sky, starting with pale mix of ultramarine and titanium white. This creates depth and sets a soft base, upon which I layered the cloud texture.
Create Cloud Texture
To add life to the sky, I dabbed thick light grey gouache over the base, softening edges with a clean damp brush. I adjusted the opacity to create natural cloud variations.
One technique that I often use for organic looking texture is the dry brush technique. This is where I load the brush with colour, then remove excess moisture from the brush with a paper towel. The grain of the paper shows through the paint, as no water settles into the dips of the paper’s texture.
Paint the Mountain
Using a mix of cooler tones like ultramarine blue and ivory black and titanium white, I blocked in the mountain shapes. These colours reflect the atmospheric perspective, making the mountain appear distant. Then I added some green and white to the purple mix to make a lighter colour, to create some rock volumes at the base of the mountain. I added subtle details of the distant trees in darker blue with a smaller brush
Paint the Grass Background
For the distant grassy areas, I painted light greens combined with touches of yellow ochre and burnt umber. This step preps the composition for its middle ground elements. I used a dry brush again to start to create texture in the grass area.
Start to Paint the Water
The reflections of the sky and mountain are visible in the water, so I try to create a mirror image of the sky and mountains. I use the colours that are already on the palette and darken them slightly, as water reflections are often darker than what they reflect.
Paint Distant Trees
Tiny strokes of muted green and grey created the appearance of far-off trees. These details add character without drawing focus.
Create Grass Details
I layered brighter greens and yellows in the foreground to give the grass a textured, lively feel. Using the tip of a fine brush, I added vertical, organic strokes for blades of grass. I add more water to the brush to make it more fluid.
Water Reflections and Details
I added some darker water reflections, for the sections of the water in shadow, the ripples and the parts reflecting the grassy bank. I used the find tip of a round brush to detail these lines.
Foreground Grass Bank
Here, I painted darker greens mixed with browns, adding more contrast and shadow to ground the composition. This brings the scene into focus and ties the elements together.
Conclusion
This is how I painted a mountain lake scene step by step! The painting really starts to come together half way through. It’s all about creating the illusion of detail, then layering some select details on top to bring focus to the piece.
I have a blog about gouache painting ideas, check it out if you’re interested.
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