Backyard Project using Academy Watercolour Pencils

by artist Linda Stevens

Materials used Watercolour Paper Academy Sketching 2B pencil Academy Watercolour Pencils; Yellow Ochre, Rose, Terracotta, Brown, Black, Sea Green, Burnt Umber. Paintbrush Saucer or palette

Use your shapes to guide you to draw your design. Circles, squares, triangles and oblongs are the basics of drawing.

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Draw your design on a spare piece of paper; this enables you to erase any mistakes and not leave marks on your good watercolour paper. Once you are happy with your design you can then proceed to trace your picture onto the piece of watercolour paper remembering not to press too hard whilst tracing as you will leave marks on your paper. We recommend using a 2B pencil for this.

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Select the colours you wish to use for your background; Yellow Ochre, Rose, Terracotta and Black have been used for this drawing. Take a wet brush and run some colour off the tip of the pencil using a saucer to collect the wet colour. Start by mixing some Yellow Ochre and Rose in your saucer / palette and then apply this to the paper. Terracotta and Black have then been added in small amounts to give the shadows. For the pots, watering can, spade and shovel Terracotta, Brown and Rose have been used by taking the colour from the tip of the pencil using a wet brush and then applying this to the paper. Let your drawing dry.

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Once your picture has dried you can start putting on more colour. You can do this in two ways (1) you can use your dry watercolour pencil and run this over your watering can, pots and background and then go over this with a wet brush or (2) you can pick the colour up from the tip of the pencil and apply this to the picture. The second option will give you stronger colours. Once you are happy with the colours leave to dry. Use Green for the leaves and stalks and choose which colours you would like your flowers to be. Depending on the paper you use if you apply the pencil dry you can achieve some great textured effects.

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At this stage we start to put in the final details. In the background more dry colour has been added to create more depth and tone to the drawing. In some areas, such as the watering can, the cross hatching technique has been used. Yellow and Sea Green dry pencil have been added to the pots to give them some age. Over the base of the picture the pots are standing on a wet and dry surface; make sure the dark areas are kept to the corners and base of the pot so they create the deepest shadows. For the compost falling out of the pot Terracotta and Brown have been used and left to dry. Burnt Umber and Black wet pencil were used for the marks on top of the compost to achieve the look of texture. Your drawing is now complete!