You can add fog to any watercolor landscape if you have a good opaque white paint. Follow along step by step for a glowing watercolor silhouette with smooth washes and fog, or check the rest of the lesson with fog added to some student paintings (will be added Wednesday). Washes will work best on good watercolor paper – the cheaper brands may not give you a smooth wash.
Handouts for How to Paint Fog in Watercolor
(TIP – If you can’t download the pdf handouts, copy and paste the handout images below for your use)
- Reference Photo (from Pixabay)
- Finished Watercolor Painting
- 8 x 10 Outline Page
- Card size outline with finished painting
- Written Instructions
Suggested Colors for Glowing Silhouette
TIP – Many colors will work well for this – test your colors on scrap paper and pick the best. You need a beautiful orange and a glowing dark. The fewer colors you need to get these two shades, the easier it will be to paint this.
- Yellow – any good yellow, especially yellows that lean to orange like New Gamboge or Diarylide Yellow
- Orange – Transparent Pyrrole Orange
- Dark – Dark Blue or Dark Purple – Ultramarine Blue or Indanthrone Blue or Dioxazine Purple
- Opaque white – Bleed Proof White, Pro White, etc.
Tips for Beautiful Glowing Silhouettes the Easy Way in Watercolor
- Mix your colors ahead of time – the orange, the very dark, and the medium dark. Test them on scrap paper.
- Mix more paint than you think you’ll need – use a container if you don’t have room on your palette
- Work wet on wet for your sky and use a big soft wash brush.
- Don’t brush it to death – let the water do the blending by turning the paper of use a fan brush. Add water if you need to with a misting bottle.
- Dry well between sections.
