By Tissa Hewavitarane

The difference of capturing light in watercolour

The key to an exciting painting lies in capturing the dramatic effects of strong light in watercolour. Establishing colour harmony lies in using restraint. Before you begin a painting, decide whether you want your picture to be predominantly warm or cool, bright or dull. Then choose your colours accordingly. Remember the narrower the range of colours on your palette, the more harmonious your picture will be.

A beach scene with bright sunlight

Nature is always harmonious because light touches every colour and suffuses it with its own colour. On a sunny afternoon the colours in a landscape reflect the golden glow of the sun; on a cold winter the landscape may take on a blue tonality.

To achieve this kind of harmony in your paintings you must forget preconceived notions about what colour something is supposed to be. Local colours are always influenced by the colour of the prevailing light. So, unify your colour scheme by modifying the local colours of the objects your painting with warm or cool colour.

First, I decide what is most important to me about what I am looking at. Having got the most important elements down, the bits that will hold the whole composition together, Once I have got as much information I need, I put the drawing to develop in mind to make it feel the painting ought to be composed in terms of shapes, rhythms, tonal patterns and negative shapes.

A sound painting is made-up of beautiful arrangements of values, colour and in arranging the shapes is a knowledge of proportions.

The painting shown here is a beach scene with bright sunlight. The qualities of tone and colour in the areas hit by light are fascinating.

When light falls on something the colour is bleached out, yet when it falls through something, the colours glow rich and strong.

When painting a beach scene the two women with colourful cloth and jacket bring life to the painting, by aiming to capture the gesture and shape.

Notice the clouds with different formation and the distance fishing boats anchored on the seashore.

To get the correct formation of arrangement in a scene needs lot of experience and hard work and concentration of mind, where to put the correct colours at the correct time.