Download Your Free Watercolor Landscape Tutorials Today!

Even seasoned artists can find that there’s some new or different way to practice a technique when it comes to painting a watercolor landscape. Edwards began as an oil painter, meticulously creating realistic paintings until he one day discovered the loose nature of watercolor. The rest is history: he now teaches workshops throughout the United States and Canada, is a published author, and reaches an international audience through his instructional DVDs.

“Knowing there is so much more to learn keeps me thirsty for knowledge,” said landscape artist Sterling Edwards in Creating Luminous Watercolor Landscapes.

For the first time, you can sample his teaching method of the four-step process for painting a watercolor landscape in this excerpt from Creating Luminous Watercolor Landscapes. Not a landscape watercolor artist yourself? Don’t stop reading–the techniques in these lessons are also applicable to oils and acrylics. Paint the landscape art that’s waiting to meet your canvas after you practice these lessons from Edwards, who shares his knowledge and passion.

Free Tips for Beautiful Watercolor Landscape Paintings

Learn how to paint a landscape watercolor painting such as a snow scene, lakes, foggy rivers, and sunsets. Read the descriptions below–each is excerpted from Creating Luminous Watercolor Landscapes by Sterling Edwards, and corresponds to a four-step lesson that you can practice on your own. “With practice comes confidence and with confidence comes competence,” says Edwards in the conclusion to his book. “Each painting is a new adventure. Some will work and some won’t. I strongly encourage you to try the exercises in this book, attend classes and workshops, keep an open mind to new ideas, and share ideas with other artists. But most of all, enjoy the journey.”

Inspiration for your Landscape Artwork: Fog

The atmospheric conditions that are present in a foggy landscape suggest a wet and sometimes cold location depending on the colors that you use. Fog can sometimes be presented as a warm, damp atmosphere if you incorporate a little bit of warm color in the initial washes. Let the mood you’re trying to suggest and the reference material guide your decision as to the warm or cold conditions.

Achieve Gorgeous Paintings of Landscapes and Rivers

Lakes with reflections are beautiful and serene but can often require some special techniques to capture the glassy surface of the water with its shimmer of a reflection. Still water reflects not only the colors above the water but also the shapes. It’s an excellent opportunity to use a wet-onto-wet technique to give the reflected shapes softer, blurred edges.

Painting Light in Your Watercolor Landscape Art: Sunsets

The vibrant sunset colors from the reference photo for this painting have a tendency to get muddy; explore using buffer colors to keep color vibrant and avoid mud.