Ann Pember: Painting in the Flow of Watercolor On High Plate Illustration Board Ann Pember

You’ll learn from a master how to create the atmosphere you want for your watercolor paintings. 

In this video watercolor workshop, watch author, artist, and teacher Ann Pember demonstrate her dynamic painting process as she brings a mountain stream to life. Make your own watercolor paintings come alive with Painting In The Flow of Watercolor and its companion watercolor instruction video Vibrant Orchid.

From two reference photos, Ann creates a peaceful, atmospheric design that captures a mountain stream’s energy. Using only five colors and two brushes, she sequences the application of paint and water to create a variety of textures. Moss covered rocks, dense forest foliage, and energetic currents of water come to life with Ann’s delicate, studied touch.

Ann Pember uses the high plate surface of the illustration board to her advantage. She sprays water into areas at just the right moment to move the pigment along the surface of the board. She alters edges, softens transitions, and places tree trunks to develop her dynamic mountain scene. Ann’s watercolor instruction is insightful and liberating. 

Ann Pember’s watercolor landscapes prove that the painter, not the paint, makes the difference in great art. With a limited set of pigments and tools, she creates texture and variety that suggest a full palette and an aresenal of brushes. In this workshop, Ann uses only three blues, two earth tones and two brushes to paint a peaceful, atmospheric river scene.

The simplicity of Ann’s materials allow you to concentrate on design and technique. She explains her favorite application and texturing methods, as well as the advantages and intricacies of painting on illustration board.

Ann grants equal attention to each shape in her composition. She forgoes a flat wash and concentrates on individual elements to ensure lifelike variation across the high plate board. She returns to each rock and tree with clean water to clean and soften edges, helping the eye flow through the scene.

The forces of nature play a part in Ann’s process as much as they do in her landscape scene. She works with her board at an angle, relying on gravity to weave patterns into the flow of her watercolor. She creates additional texture by spritzing the painting with clean water and an old toothbrush. The delicate spray adds dimension to the boulders and suggests intricate paths in the water.

With the rocks and river in place, Ann uses her earth tones to mix bold greens for the background trees. She demonstrates a range of techniques for painting tree cover: lifting white branches from blocks of color, swirling edges with a flat brush and dotting in leaves with the brush’s edge.

By the end of the workshop, Ann’s five colors have multiplied into a full complement of tones for a rich nature scene. Her attention to each shape and edge makes the river flow smoothly and bubble with life. To add skills and texture to your watercolor without adding colors to your palette, join Ann Pember in Painting in the Flow of Watercolor on High Plate Illustration Board.

Bonus Clip: Background Trees in Watercolor Landscape
In this clip from her video workshop, Painting in the Flow of Watercolor, Ann Pember uses active brushwork to create a background treeline in a watercolor landscape. Ann shows you how to control moisture and mix multiple shades of blue to control the texture of trees and distinguish them from other landscape elements