Edit: My good friend and expert Cindi told me that this painting is of a bridge in Southwest Harbor, just “up the road a piece” from Somesville. Thanks Cindi! (and you CAN get there from here! LOL-Maine joke!)
Hi Friends! I have to thank reader Jamie Evens for requesting this tutorial and allowing me to use her beautiful photograph she took of the Somesville bridge for today’s very long watercolor tutorial. Today I will show you paint this lovely scene from my beautiful state of Maine!
Watch the video for a relaxed step by step tutorial. I had several viewers on YouTube who said they enjoyed the longer video because as beginners it helped them understand the process of completing a larger painting better. I hope you find it useful too!
Supplies for this tutorial:
- Art Masking Fluid (also called liquid frisket)
- Soap and a cheap brush
- Watercolor paint, below are the colors I used, you can use these or similar colors:
Cad Yellow light or Lemon yellow
yellow ocher
magenta or alizarin crimson or rose madder
ultramarine blue
sap green
permanent green light
burnt sienna - Brushes: 3/4″ flat wash, #10 round, #5 filbert, #12 flat You can go up or down a size and be fine though:)
Here is the photograph by Jamie that I have posted with her permission. Thanks again Jamie!
If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to help you out. Please use the hints and techniques I shared with you in the video to paint your next watercolor. Nothing is more difficult to paint than anything else, just break it down into small steps and go for it and most importantly have fun! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
The Frugal Crafter Blog 
Beautiful
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Unbelievably Wonderful Experience to watch you paint. And I enjoy your commentary, because you know what you are doing and how to paint, Thanks
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thanks!
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What fun watching your videos, Lindsay. The step by step and commentary are fun and delightful to watch.
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well thanks, the long time was no trouble with u tube. enjoyed it from start to finish.
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this was a great tutorial! tfs
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Love this!! I like the longer video a lot!! Hearing your thought process as you do a more involved watercolor helps so much!! 🙂
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WAUW this is so awesome Lindsey, and so sooo beautiful, and as always a great tutorial too.
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Enjoyed watching you paint the watercolor picture. I think we need a long one once in a while along with the short ones as we will do both at some time. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
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I enjoyed the long video and I hope you continue these demonstrations, as well as, the short videos. I love your enthusiasm.
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I love the fact that you’ve gone nice and slow for us beginners and I’m really going to give this a try. I just need to get some masking fluid before I get started and then I’ll take a deep breath and see what a mess I can make of it lol. x
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You did a nice job and answered a few fears for the beginners among your fans. Thank you. It is fun stepping out of our comfort areas and letting go of the inner-critic.
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I loved the bridge tutorial. I am a beginner painter and this was a terrific video! This is also my first comment and I have been watching for a couple of months now
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thanks so much for writing! I’m glad you liked it!
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Hi Lindsay, 🙂
I really appreciate you taking the time to do this tutorial; I have learned so much and found the time went quickly. I like the house (and the bridge) as it adds interest and balance to the background. Also I like the cattails and rocks at the front. The painting is beautiful. Your short and long videos are great.
When you use the toothbrush, do you put it in the water first before you add the paint to it?
Great photo Jamie. Thanks for sharing!
Glad your dog is OK.
Your energy, humour and spirit inspire me, so much, to paint.
THANK YOU!
Take care.
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yes, put water on the toothbrush first;)
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Hi Lindsay, 🙂
Thank you for your reply.
Happy painting!!
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loved the video!
have a small question – what do you use to protect the hand from Masking Fluid???
I’m just not very good at English and could you please write the name of it
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use a rubber cement pick-up. it will save your hands when removing dried masking fluid.
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I apologize, but I mean how to protect the brush to draw from Masking Fluid
it’s because the translator…
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coat the bristles in liquid soap.
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Thank you! And for the answers and for the video!
I’m not an artist, but I just like to draw, and I helped your video in which you often say that you need to draw to having fun !!!
I love that your video is not sped up – thanks to this I can see how a real-time I spend on the drawing! And long video is good too – learn a lot, and this particular video of me at first frightened, but when I saw the size of the drawing – I understand … and this video made me think that I may have to get such a format? With such a detailed video – I’ll try to be sure to draw the same pattern !!!!
Thank you very much for your work!
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I think the longer format was awesome for this — it’s not necessarily a scene I’d choose to paint, but I learned a lot that I can apply to other paintings because you had more time to show all the steps. Thanks!
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I am also a beginner and I am going to paint the bridge next week. I love it. All of your painting videos are wonderful. I would like to have one on the water Lillies that you painted on vacation.
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Hi Lindsay! I watched (a million times) your tut of the watercolor boat. Foolishly, I thought I would be able to paint this really quick and easy for my husband yesterday, father’s day. Hahahaha!
Went to Michael’s to find the 2 brushes and of course the paint. As usual, they didn’t have the brushes and when I saw the prices … holy cow!! Anyway, looking around I found value packs of watercolor brushes (Artist’s Loft). Then for the paint found another value pack of Artist’s Loft paint, in tubes. I was trying to use the same colors. Of course the red deep or whatever wasn’t in the kit. Instead, crimson red, which to me seems like a cool red?
So, I get home and guess what? I can access YouTube on our TV and now I have your channel coming through our surround sound! LOL That was weird, cool, but… And you’re on a 50 something inch screen!
I was a nervous wreck trying to keep up at the same time trying to work the remote, the water,paint, brushes …. Everything was flying everywhere! Crazy!! If this doesn’t prove how dumb I am, nothing will.
My question (s) — am I supposed to prep or do something to the brushes to get rid of all the strays?? Holy cow!! More bristles than paint. And, am I supposed to squeeze the paint out and let it dry?? I made a makeshift pallet out of a PURPLE plastic box with hot glue for wells.
It’s really embarrassing to say I actually bought this cheap stuff, but it’s all I could afford. Did I mention I paid a little over $7 for 12 tubes and 6 (or something) brushes?? LOL!
Yes! I’m crazy but dang it! I’m going to paint this!! Please accept my apologies for this being so lengthy (I talk the same way too). I so much appreciate your help! You make it seem so easy!! Maybe for a normal person?
I’m going to try and get rid of some of the hair or bristles now. Thanks again!!
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wow, this might be a bit tricky for a first painting. I have not used Artist lost, you can try washing the brushes to get out the loose hairs. I recommend Royal or Princeton brushes, you can get they in affordable packs and they won’t lose hair. Make sure to get synthetic golden hair ones, they will preform best. And give yourself time to learn and practice. Me on a 50″ screen? Oh my, that’s “too much Lindsay” LOL!
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Well thanks Lindsay!! I stayed up uhm, well, a long time and finished the painting. I’m trying again today, but this time I’m adding in a little bit of this blue violet, I think? Because, with the cobalt and crimson I just couldn’t get the really dark value, hue, shade (?) at all; you know, yours appeared black? Washing the brushes really helped tremendously. I did try to find the brushes you recommended at Michael’s, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. Oh well, probably need to wait just to see if I can paint first? And about the TV, yes, it was cool — way better than the tiny screen on my phone! Thanks so much for your help!! I really appreciate it!! Take care!! 🙂
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