Art Lesson One:
The Dunes and Light at Cape Lookout.

Title: The Dunes and Light at Cape Lookout. 16x22 Watercolor

Art Lesson One features one of my very favorite subjects to paint: Lighthouses. This one has an interesting composition as well.

Cape Lookout Light is in North Carolina along the Barrier Islands. There aren’t a lot of lights with diamonds painted along their sides making this light a powerful visual element and the Island it sits on is very beautiful and has a untouched natural feel to it.

Boats like those I painted in the foreground are often found on the island because it’s the only way to get there except the ferry, and in this painting the boats add an interesting and important element to the composition.

As you’ll see I like to paint from the top down in this painting. In a painting with a sunny sky like this, it’s important to get the sky in first so you get the shadows and highlights right.

I paint the buildings and trees along the sky line and work my way down to the foreground and lastly I paint in the boats followed by added details over all. Then I see what highlights and shadows the painting needs and add them carefully, not over-doing either the details, highlights, or shadows.

For Art Lesson One, I've used the following Colors:

• Mountain Blue (S)
• Payne’s Gray (S)
• Sap Green (G)
• Vandyke Brown (S)
• Scarlet Lake Red (W)
• Olive Green (W)
• Raw Umber (S)
• Burnt Umber (S)
• Masking Fluid (Colorless)

Brushes Used:

• 3/4 Oval Wash
• 3/0 Round
• 1/4 Rake
• 3/4 Rake
• # 3 Round

I first size my paper by soaking the surface of the paper with warm water and then letting it dry. As the paper dries it flattens out and gets smooth. I mount it on a board with tape and it’s ready for me to get started.

Here is the detailed pencil sketch I’ve drawn with some shadows and detail added. I sketched in the boats and roughed in the lay of the landscape. I find that if I add as much detail as I can it really helps me later when I’m painting.

I used my masking fluid to block out paint from getting into the lighthouse and other outbuildings and trees. Using my 3/4 oval wash brush I layered in my sky in light washes building up the color as it dried. (You can add color but it’s damn hard to remove it after the fact.) Getting the sky right is very important to the overall success of the paint.

I worked the detail into the lighthouse and other buildings using a small #3/0 round brush. I then added the trees, putting in texture. Next, I put in the shadows on the buildings. Things are starting to take shape!

You can see the detail in the buildings really working now I’ve started adding washes of Vandyke Brown to the dunes and the beach, giving the painting a feeling of depth and dimension adding to the composition.

I’m adding beach grasses with a 3/4 Rake brush which adds detail and interest along the dunes and beach. The colors are starting to work together as I add them.

Here the boats are painted in and the highlights and shadows are done. I also used an old toothbrush to add browns, blacks and yellows with what is called a Spattering technique. Spattering is fun, but I need to be careful, too much of a something isn’t always a good thing.

I hope you enjoyed your visit to my studio for Art Lesson One, as much as I enjoyed painting for you. If you have questions, please contact me. Until next time I wish you well.

Artist Lee M Buchanan

Be sure to visit Art Lesson Two: The Forgotten Light.

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