Lisbon Botanical Gardens: Plein Air Watercolor Painting

• Watercolor is often perceived as an additive painting process, but working reductively can be really effective!
• To work reductively, use a sponge to lift the watercolor, and then follow up with a wipe with a paper towel.
• Make sure if you work reductively to use very durable watercolor paper.
• When painting on site, it’s really helpful to travel lean and use as few supplies as possible.
• A water brush is really good for travel, it has a compartment in the back where you can pour in water.
• A sumi brush is plump and flexible, although it can be tough to control at first.
• Atmospheric perspective is really useful when you want to create depth in a scene.
• In this case, there were aloe leaves that were very detailed and pronounced in the painting, but also several that were very blurry, which pushes them back into the distance.

• Hot press watercolor paper is smooth, cold pressed watercolor paper is rough.
• Neither is better than the other, it’s a matter of personal preference.
• The amount of water in your brush determines how much control you can have over your strokes.
• The more water that is in your brush, the more the strokes will feel more wild and not under your control.
• When looking at your subject, ask yourself before you even start, what you are trying to portray.
• In this case, the aloe Prof Lieu chose to paint had a very “regal” posture to it that made it feel figurative.
• Getting precise color mixtures with watercolor is really challenging!
• It’s okay to have a color mixing process that is a lot looser and simply an approximation.
• Drawing the initial sketch in watercolor can be really helpful, as you get your head into the mindset of watercolor from the get go.

Art Supplies

• Winsor & Newton Watercolor Block, cold pressed 
• Sumi brushes 
• Faber-Castell Clic & Go Foldable Water Pot
• Airtight Watercolor Palette
• Pentel water brush
• Winsor & Newton watercolor tubes
• sponge
• paper towels

Reference Photos