Ronald Pratt

Nature in Watercolor: Painting Trees

Ronald Pratt

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  • In-depth Instruction; over 152 mins
  • On-demand video access anytime
  • Bonus downloadable PDF resources
  • Access to class Q&A
Meet your instructor, watercolor artist Ronald Pratt, as he introduces you to the vibrant treescape you'll paint over the course of this class. Your work begins with finding reference photos and creating value sketches that will help you determine the composition and values you'll use in your painting.
Block in your major elements and explore the addictively fun qualities of masking as Ronald demonstrates ways to preserve crisp whites across your paper. Familiarize yourself with Ronald's masking techniques before using them to distinguish lights and darks in your painting. Additionally, you'll learn how to prevent making mistakes later on.
Mixing various colors is one of the most enjoyable elements of watercolor painting, and Ronald offers helpful tips for mixing the exact hues and values that you want. Learn Ronald's unique palette setup, which prevents troublesome color contamination, and practice blending water and paints to achieve the consistency, vibrancy and hues that you desire.
Apply your new understanding of paint mixing as you mix and paint the first wash in your treescape. Use fun tools like sponges and a wide variety of brushes to apply a rich wash that adds movement and dimension to the page. Next, practice techniques like stippling, scraping and splattering to give your painting a variety of textures and different areas of interest.
After letting your initial wash dry, you're ready to add intriguing details. Ronald helps you assess your work in progress, demonstrating ways to darken or lighten values, create more texture and draw the viewer's eye to key areas in your painting. Add or scrub out areas of color as you paint dark pine trees against crisp white aspen trees, create depth in your forest scene and develop the sky and ground.
Enjoy the fun process of removing the liquid mask from the page, exposing the white areas that you carefully protected at the beginning of your project. Ronald shows you how to add dimension and shadow to the aspen trunks, hiding any mistakes along the way, before painting details such as branches, scrapes and knots on the trunks.
Your piece is nearly done, and you're ready to take a final pass to fine-tune your work. Use sponges to add foliage and dappled shadows, soften harsh edges without losing important information, and apply other painterly effects to loosen up your painting and add more intriguing elements. Finish the work with a delicate spray of white gouache and review other paintings by Ronald, which will inspire future projects that will use your new-found techniques.
 
 
7 Lessons
2  hrs 32  mins

Learn how to paint aspen trees and vibrant foliage with captivating form alongside instructor Ronald Pratt. Start by planning a compelling composition with a value sketch. Then, block in the major elements of your painting and mask out negative space for your aspens. Get tips for mixing rich colors in the hues and values you want, and use them with a variety of techniques and tools to create breathtaking foliage, textured grasses and more. Next, lighten and darken values to add dimension to your work, paint dark pine trees in the distance and add interest to the sky. Remove your liquid mask to reveal brilliant white aspen trunks, and then add shadows for depth before bringing your trees to life with branches, scrapes and knots. Plus, fine-tune your work with painterly effects for an organic, outstanding finished piece.

Ronald Pratt

Ronald Pratt has been teaching workshops and classes in watercolor painting in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years. His work has been published in Walter Foster's The Art of Watercolor Painting and Watercolor: Seasons, and can be found in collections both nationally and internationally. Ronald discovered his love of watercolor painting while studying architecture at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. After 10 years, he transitioned from working as an architectural designer to become a full-time watercolor painter and instructor.

Ronald Pratt

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