Painting a Misty Mountain Landscape: A Simple Watercolor Tutorial

Are you looking to paint a serene watercolor landscape that feels simple and captivating? Let's explore an easy, misty mountain scene together!

I'll guide you through every step in today's tutorial, from sketching to adding details. Whether you're a beginner or want to refine your skills, you'll find this process relaxing and enjoyable.

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

Materials Needed for Painting the Misty Mountain Landscape

Before we start, let's discuss the materials you'll need for this project. The right supplies will make your painting experience smoother and more enjoyable.

Here's what I use for this simple watercolor landscape:

Watercolors

First, let's talk about the colors. For this landscape, you'll need shades of green and a few browns to create depth and texture. Here are the main colors I'll be using:

• Primary Yellow: This bright color from Sennelier will help add warmth and light to your painting, especially in the sunlit areas.
• Dirty Yellow (Brown Pink): This shade from Sunella adds a muddy feel, perfect for grounding your landscape.
• Phthalo 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 the grassy fields and the middle-ground foliage.
• Greenish Umber: This darker green from Sennelier is used to add shadows, especially in mountainous areas.
• Sepia: A rich, dark brown that's great for creating shadows and textures.
• Neutral Tint: This dark color helps define shadows and adds contrast.

Brushes

You'll need two brushes:

• A round brush or a mop brush: This will help you apply the colors across the larger areas.
• A synthetic brush: This one will blend and soften the colors.

Other Supplies

• Spray bottle: For moistening areas and helping create smooth transitions in your painting.
• 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: You'll need this to guide you through the process. You can find it in the description below the video if you'd like to use it as a reference.

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

Now that we've gathered everything let's start painting!

Step 1: Sketching and Preparing the Landscape

Before you dive into painting, a simple sketch will set up the framework for your landscape.

I like to start with a light sketch to define the basic elements of the scene. We'll sketch out distant, misty mountains, a flowing river, and the grassy areas in the foreground for this landscape.

Don't worry about making the lines perfect. Keeping the lines a little crooked and natural will help your painting look more authentic and less rigid.

Start by lightly sketching the horizon line, then add the mountains' basic shapes. Don't forget the river, which will be winding through the scene. This simple sketch is all you need to get started.

Step 2: Painting the Green Fields and Distant Mountains

Let's dive into the green fields and distant mountains! I start by grabbing my round brush and mixing Phthalo Green Light with a touch of Sap Green.

Since this is our first wash, I add more water to make the paint nice and watery. I gently apply this mixture over the mountain areas. The goal is to create a soft base layer for the distant mountains.

Next, I add more Sap Green to the mixture to strengthen the color. I focus on the corners of the mountains, applying this slightly darker mix to add depth.

To help smooth the transition, I use a spray bottle to moisten the top areas. 

Then, I pull the paint upwards with my brush, blending it into a gradual green representing the misty, distant mountains.

Now that the first wash has dried, let's add more depth to the mountains. I mix in a darker green, Greenish Umber to create shadow areas around the corners.

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

You can also use splattering to add texture to the mountains. It's a simple trick that brings more life to your painting.

Just take your brush and lightly tap it on your hand, letting the paint flick onto the paper. This creates a nice, textured effect that mimics natural foliage.

Step 3: Creating the Clouds and Soft, Blurry Mountains

Now, let's focus on painting the distant mountains. Since they're the furthest away, I want them to appear blurry and less defined, with many clouds floating around.

I grab Sepia and mix it with a very light wash. Then, I gently apply this wash around the mountain areas.

Next, I take my blending brush and blend the paint with water. This helps create the illusion of soft, floating clouds.

As the greens at the bottom of the painting begin to dry, I add texture by splattering water over the area. This creates a more organic look and brings interest to the scene.

I return to the mountains, adding more Sepia around the edges to deepen the cloudy effect. With the blending brush, I smooth out the areas where I want softer transitions.

I also pre-wet small areas with water before filling them with paint, which creates a nice bleeding effect and adds softness to the mountains.

By repeating these steps, I can create blurry, faraway mountains. Areas not covered by clouds remain visible, while areas hidden behind the clouds stay paper white. 

I move on to the second mountain, adding variety by mixing brown pink into the Sap Green for a muddy texture. I also add more Sepia to create a nice variation in texture.

Let's continue and work on adding the river, which flows out from the mountains. I use French Ultramarine Blue for this.

This step helps establish the distance and ethereal quality of the mountains. Now, we're ready to move on to adding more details to the foreground.

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

Now that we've laid down the first layer, 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.

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

Once I've laid down the strokes, I use my blending brush to soften the bottom edges, making them appear more natural and fluid. 

I also spray some water here and there to help soften the brushstrokes and create a smooth transition.

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

As I work on the foreground, I include stones around the grass.

I paint the shape of the rocks first and then blur them out, making sure the shadows blend smoothly into the landscape.

This landscape is very abstract, so feel free to experiment with your brushstrokes and grass placement.

You should trust your instincts and paint where you think more details are needed. Every painting is unique, and that's what makes it special.

If you feel like an area needs more texture or a different color, adjust it.

I always step back to get a fresh perspective on my painting. It helps me see which areas need more work and where I can add details or more layers.

I suggest you do the same—stand up, look at your painting from a distance, and decide if anything needs to be changed.

Now, I'm adding another stone in the corner to balance out the composition. 

I go back to the bottom corners of the painting and mix Neutral Tint with Greenish Umber to create dark, rich greens. This helps me add more texture and shadow to the mountain area. 

The mountains looks a bit flat, so I add more texture. I mix Sepia with a little Neutral Tint to paint in some rocks and shadows. 

I also outline the mountains and blend them using the blending brush for a smoother look.

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

Finally, it's time to focus on the river. To build more depth, I add Ultramarine Blue mixed with a Neutral Tint 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 dimension.

The painting is starting to come together with all these details in place. Add some splatters. Let's move on to the final touches to make everything pop!

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

At this point, you'll notice the painting starting to take shape. All those little details are coming together, and the landscape is beginning to show its form.

It's all about layering and slowly building up textures. If your painting doesn't quite look right yet, don't stress!

We all go through that “ugly phase,” and it's part of the process. Just keep pushing through, and I promise your landscape will come to life with more patience and effort.

I notice that one area still feels flat, so I add crack lines to give the landscape more depth and texture.

I keep going back and forth between the foreground and the background, adding layers and refining details.

Adjusting areas that need more work is essential, so feel free to do the same with your painting!

Finally, I bring back some highlights using a white ink pen. I add lines around darker shadow areas in the grass, and to soften them, I smudge the ink with my fingers.

I also add dots to suggest flower buds in the grass, creating even more texture and life in the scene.

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

Final Thoughts

As we wrap up this misty mountain watercolor journey, I hope you've enjoyed each step and found the process relaxing and rewarding. Remember, painting is about patience and creativity, so don't rush!

Trust your instincts and make adjustments as you go. Now that you've got the skills, it's time to create your unique landscapes. Ready to paint your next masterpiece?

Grab your supplies and start experimenting!