From Sketchbook to Watercolor Painting

Last weekend, with a few precious hours to myself, I took inspiration from my apple orchard watercolor sketch and recreated it as a finished painting.  The sketch needed some tweaks-- I partially hid the barn and enhanced the feeling of depth in the orchard. When I blocked out the painting, I kept it very simple and focused on shapes.  As I painted, I worked from background to foreground in this painting, using cooler washes to fill in the background trees and finally brightening up the foreground with the sun-dappled apple trees and red apples.