Here is a watercolour painting that I painted in the Terry Harrison style, taken from page 102 of his book Brush With Watercolour – Painting Landscapes The Easy Way

This has to be one of the best books in my collection and runs to 128 pages. The first half of the book explains a multitude of useful watercolour techniques, as well as how to get the best out of the Terry Harrison’s Complete Brush Set for Watercolours (12 Brushes) which I’d received as a Christmas present.

This exercise used a palette of 13 colours

When I started this watercolour painting it seemed such a mammoth task as there appeared to be so much detail, but Terry had broken down the exercise into 17 simple to follow steps. Each step explained what needed to be done, referred back to the supporting information on the brushes and techniques detailed earlier in the book, and was accompanied by some excellent stage-by-stage photographs

What I learned

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Where do I begin? I learned so much! This was the third painting that I had tried from this book, and as with the others, there was plenty of forward planning to think about. I gained new practical knowledge about the importance building up layers and applying glazes, because as each successive layer is built up on top of another, on completion the intensity of the pigments positively brings the painting alive with colour. I also learned not to worry too much how the early stages look, because although Terry’s technique of stippling in leaves and undergrowth seems quite messy to look at when you do it the first time, when you finish applying the final washes, glazes, scratching out and smaller detail, at the end, everything is brought neatly together. I love this style of painting, and Terry is a great teacher. Although there were many new techniques I had to take on board it was worth it, and I can assure you that I’m going to have a lot of fun working through the the other exercises in this book!