Watercolor and Ink Landscape Painting from Lake District in Cumbria, UK

Cumbria, England is a remarkably scenic area abounding with blue mountains, lush green meadows enclosed by stone walls and sheep grazing on the hillsides.

I painted this Cumbria landscape several years ago as a 5x7 watercolor. This time, I will paint it at 8x10 using ink with watercolor. It's wonderfully fun! Keep reading to see how.

The first step after drawing the scene in pencil and taping the paper to a board, is to make horizontal washes of color with a large brush. The colors are roughly what the final colors will be in those areas.

I use very wet paint allowing the bands of color to blend together at will (I love this part!). The sheep will stay white, so I paint around them:


See the sky? I like how the sky came out and will leave it just as is without touch ups.

  • That's blue painting tape you see around the edges above. Taping the paper to a board helps the paper flatten once the paint dries and, as a bonus, will leave a nice white border around the painting once I remove it at the end. If the painting is larger than 8x10, I also staple the paper to the board before taping.

Next step is to let the paper dry until it lies flat.

Once dry, I use a Prismacolor Premier Marker to outline over the pencil drawing. The marker is both permanent and acid-free so it will stay black and not turn brown in a few years (the way a Sharpie marker will).


After all the outlines are drawn, I use watercolor to shade the various land forms...


And the sheep...


I paint color and shading until I'm happy with the result. I really like how watercolor and ink works for a quaint country landscape, don't you?

Watercolor and ink painting of sheep grazing in Cumbria, England

And I found a perfect wood frame for it:

Framed watercolor and ink painting of sheep in Cumbria, England 14x17 inches
"Cumbria" framed watercolor and ink painting


Thank you for stopping by to enjoy this fun painting today!


I'm happy to take custom orders. Contact me for a custom painting of your pet, home, garden, grandkids, favorite vacation spot or whatever your heart desires.
To receive my posts by email, fill in your email address under FOLLOW BY EMAIL in the right hand column and click Submit. You'll receive my posts in your email inbox at the end of each day that a post is made.

No comments: