Sailboat Racing in the Northwest

I loved playing with fog and mountain ranges.  The water reflections are easy to pull out if you do them when the paper is wet.  Getting soft edges is a matter of timing in a watercolor.  I put the sky in with a graded wash and then, while still wet, tilt my board up and run water down.  I keep adding water to wash out the sky color and put in some bumps to soften the fast line created by the water.  I then return to painting the mountain in the foreground and stretching the trees up into the cleared fog area.  The fog then falls behind and gives the composition some depth.  I let the painting dictate when it is ready for the next phase.