Painting a Misty Mountain Landscape: A Simple Watercolor Tutorial

Are you looking to paint a serene watercolor landscape that feels simple yet captivating?

As Kerrilyn Cheah often shows, a soft, misty mountain scene is the perfect project to relax, unwind, and grow your watercolor skills.

In today’s tutorial, Kerrilyn Cheah will guide you through every step—from the initial sketch to the final details.

Whether you’re a beginner or hoping to refine your technique, you’ll find this process calming, accessible, and enjoyable.

Grab your brushes and paints, and let’s dive in!

Materials Needed for Painting the Misty Mountain Landscape

Before starting, the artist discusses the materials needed for this project. The right supplies will make the painting experience smoother and more enjoyable.

Here’s what the artist uses for this simple watercolor landscape:

Watercolors

First, the colors are introduced. For this landscape, shades of green and a few browns create depth and texture. Here are the main colors the artist will be using:

• Primary Yellow: This bright color from Sennelier helps add warmth and light to the painting, especially in the sunlit areas.
• Dirty Yellow (Brown Pink): This shade from Sunella adds a muddy feel, perfect for grounding the landscape.
• Green Light: This very light green, also from Sennelier, helps build up the lighter areas of the mountains and fields.
• Sap Green: This is the central green for most of the landscape, perfect for creating grassy fields and middle-ground foliage.
• Greenish Umber: This darker green from Sennelier is used to add shadows, especially in mountainous areas.
• Sepia: A rich dark brown great for creating shadows and textures.
• Neutral Tint: This dark color helps define shadows and adds contrast.

Brushes

Two brushes are needed:

• A round brush or a mop brush: This helps apply the colors across larger areas.
• A synthetic brush: This blends and softens the colors.

Other Supplies

• Spray bottle: For moistening areas and helping create smooth transitions.
• White ink pen: This comes in handy for adding small highlights, like the grass or distant clouds, toward the end of the painting.
• Reference photo: Needed to guide through the process.

Painting Easy Misty Mountain: Step-by-Step Painting Process

Now that everything is gathered, the painting begins.

Step 1: Sketching and Preparing the Landscape

Before diving into painting, a simple sketch sets up the framework for the landscape.

The artist starts with a light sketch to define the basic elements of the scene. For this landscape, distant misty mountains, a flowing river, and grassy areas in the foreground are sketched.

The lines do not need to be perfect. Keeping them a little crooked and natural helps the painting look more authentic.

The horizon line is lightly sketched first, then the basic shapes of the mountains are added. The river, winding through the scene, is also included. This simple sketch is all that is needed.

Step 2: Painting the Green Fields and Distant Mountains

The green fields and distant mountains are painted next.

The artist grabs a round brush and mixes Phthalo Green Light with a touch of Sap Green. Since this is the first wash, more water is added to make the paint watery.

This mixture is applied gently over the mountain areas to create a soft base layer.

Next, more Sap Green is added to strengthen the color. The corners of the mountains are painted with this slightly darker mix to add depth.

To help smooth the transition, a spray bottle is used to moisten the top areas.

The paint is then pulled upward with the brush, blending it into a gradual green that represents the misty distant mountains.

After the first wash dries, more depth is added by mixing Greenish Umber to create shadow areas around the corners. This contrast helps the distant mountains stand out.

This helps bring contrast to the landscape, making the distant mountains stand out against the lighter green areas.

Splattering is used to add texture to the mountains. Light tapping of the brush creates flicked paint, mimicking natural foliage.

Step 3: Creating the Clouds and Soft, Blurry Mountains

Next, the distant mountains are painted. Since they are farthest away, they appear blurry and less defined, with clouds floating around.

Sepia is mixed into a very light wash, then gently applied around the mountain areas.

The blending brush softens the paint with water, creating floating cloud effects.

As the greens at the bottom begin drying, water is splattered to add organic texture. This creates a more organic look and brings interest to the scene.

More Sepia is added around the edges to deepen the cloudy effect, then softened with the blending brush. Some areas are pre-wetted before adding paint to create nice bleeding effects.

By repeating these steps, blurry faraway mountains appear. Uncovered areas remain visible, while cloud-hidden areas stay paper white.

Blend the colors in the mountain areas

Moving to the second mountain, variety is created by mixing Brown Pink into Sap Green for a muddy texture. More Sepia is added for variation.

The river flowing out from the mountains is painted using French Ultramarine Blue.

This establishes distance and ethereal quality. Now, details in the foreground are added.

Step 4: Adding Texture to the Foreground and Painting the River

Now that the first layer has been laid down, it’s time to build the second one and add more details to the foreground. This is where the painting starts to come to life.

The artist begins by adding tiny strokes to depict the grass and green fields. These strokes are subtle but essential for creating texture.

Once the strokes are laid down, the artist uses a blending brush to soften the bottom edges, making them appear more natural and fluid.

Water is also sprayed here and there to help soften the brushstrokes and create a smooth transition.

Next, Greenish Umber is used to add shadows around the darker areas. This deep green adds contrast and brings out the texture in the grass.

As the artist works on the foreground, stones are included around the grass.

The shapes of the rocks are painted first and then blurred out to ensure the shadows blend smoothly into the landscape.

This landscape is very abstract, so experimenting with brushstrokes and grass placement is encouraged.

Instincts guide where more details are needed. Every painting is unique, and that uniqueness is what makes it special.

If an area seems to need more texture or a different color, adjustments are made.

The artist always steps back to get a fresh perspective on the painting. This helps reveal which areas need more work and where additional layers or details can be added.

Another stone is added in the corner to balance out the composition.

The artist goes back to the bottom corners of the painting and mixes Neutral Tint with Greenish Umber to create dark, rich greens. This helps add more texture and shadow to the mountain area.

The mountains look a bit flat, so more texture is added. Sepia is mixed with a little Neutral Tint to paint in rocks and shadows.

The mountains are outlined and blended using the blending brush for a smoother look.

To add more dimension to the left side of the mountains, a few more rocks are added in the grassy areas. This gives the scene a more dynamic feel and breaks up the flatness of the landscape.

Finally, the river becomes the focus. To build more depth, Ultramarine Blue mixed with Neutral Tint is added to paint the shadows along the corners of the river.

These deeper tones help create contrast and make the water more realistic. The shadows also help the river stand out from the rest of the landscape, adding another layer of

The painting begins to come together with all these details in place. Splatters are added. The final touches will make everything pop.

Step 5: Final Touches and Adjustments: Adding Depth and Highlights

At this point, the painting starts to take shape. All those little details come together, and the landscape begins to show its form.

It’s all about layering and slowly building up textures. If the painting doesn’t quite look right yet, there is no need for stress.

There is always an “ugly phase,” and it is part of the process. Continued layering and patience will allow the landscape to come to life.

One area still feels flat, so crack lines are added to give the landscape more depth and texture.

The artist keeps moving back and forth between the foreground and the background, adding layers and refining details.

Adjusting areas that need more work is essential, and the same approach can be applied in any painting.

Finally, highlights are brought back using a white ink pen. Lines are added around darker shadow areas in the grass, and to soften them, the ink is smudged with fingers.

Dots are added to suggest flower buds in the grass, creating even more texture and life in the scene.

Add highlights

That’s the end of the misty mountain landscape—a journey through layers and light.

Final Thoughts

As the misty mountain watercolor journey concludes, each step offers a relaxing and rewarding experience. Painting is about patience and creativity, so there is no need to rush.

Instincts guide the adjustments along the way. With these skills, it becomes possible to create unique landscapes. It is now time to explore and experiment with new ideas.