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Farm near Pen y Fan: A Watercolour Pencil Landscape

By Peter Weatherill

In short

A Welsh farm landscape in watercolour pencil. Lay the sky first to set the light, then scribble dry colour into the fields and trees and wash it in. Keep the white farmhouse as bare paper, and use a simple trick to hold the fence posts light against the dark hedge.

This is a watercolour pencil demonstration by Peter Weatherill. The subject is a white farmhouse in the Brecon Beacons, near Pen y Fan, with a long line of soft blue hills behind it and hedged fields running down to the foreground.

It's one big lesson is this: get the sky and the distant hills right first, because everything else, the trees, the fields, the farmhouse, has to sit against them. A good sky is most of a good landscape.

Peter worked on Hahnemühle Anniversary 425gsm cold-pressed paper, using the rough side for a traditional watercolour feel. Use the smoother side if you prefer detail, or a 300gsm hot-pressed paper if you can stretch it. Any watercolour pencils will do, but read the tip below about testing yours first.

Test your pencils first: watercolour pencil brands vary a lot in strength. A Derwent watercolour blue carries far less pigment than a Caran d'Ache, and far less again than a Derwent Inktense. Before you start, scribble and wet each colour on a scrap of the same paper, so you know how strong it really goes when the water hits it.

Testing the watercolour pencil strength with water

Testing the colour strength of the watercolour pencils.

Part one: the sky and the drawing

The point

Sky first. A landscape stands or falls on a clean sky and a soft line of distant hills, so settle those before you touch the greens.

Reference photo of a white farmhouse in the Brecon Beacons near Pen y Fan with hills behind

Peter's reference: a white farmhouse near Pen y Fan, with a long line of blue hills behind. From the course notes, so it is a little soft.

1Draw it in quickly

You can trace this if you like, but the scene is simple and only the farmhouse really has to be accurate. Peter uses a quick method: drop in a few marker points for the key positions, then draw the rest by joining the dots.

Use a grey watercolour pencil for the drawing. Grey pigment disappears once a wash goes over it, so none of your guide lines will show in the finished picture.

2Lay the sky first

Scribble a light mix of warm grey, ultramarine blue and a little raw sienna onto dry paper, going stronger along the skyline where the hills sit. Wash it in two stages so the line of the hills stays crisp, and lift a few clouds out with a dry brush while it is still wet.

Keep the sky lighter than the reference. It is usually the lightest part of the picture, and you can always darken it later if you need to.

The sky laid first in watercolour pencil over a faint drawing of the Pen y Fan farm scene

The sky goes down first, washed in two stages to keep the hill line, with a few clouds lifted out while it was wet. The farmhouse and fields are still only a faint grey drawing.

Part two: dry colour, field by field

3Scribble in the trees and fields dry

Now work in dry pencil. Scribble a line of trees along the mid-distance horizon, then work down the right-hand side, overlaying greens and ochres. Leave the farmhouse as bare white paper.

Fill the fields and hedges with light, scribbled colour, a light green foundation with some gold in the foreground grass. The rough paper will leave white speckles, but those vanish the moment you add water.

Dry watercolour pencil trees scribbled along the horizon of the Pen y Fan farm scene

Dry pencil trees scribbled along the horizon and worked down the right. Note the white speckles on the rough paper; they disappear under water later.

Light green and gold dry colour scribbled into the foreground fields of the farm scene

Light green and gold scribbled into the foreground grass, with the fields and hedges blocked in dry.

4Solve the fence posts, then wash it in

Here is the one tricky bit: pale fence posts standing against a dark hedge. Lay a light green foundation and wash it in, then work the dark hedge behind the posts, leaving them light. The sunlit tops of the hedge stay light too.

Washed in, the greens leap up very bright. Do not panic, you calm them down later. A small nylon brush and a careful hand keep the posts and the hedge-tops clean.

Studio tip: a fence-post trick

When pale posts sit against a dark hedge, place your colour just to the right of each drawn post line. That way, if you need to tidy an edge, you are never erasing over the post itself.

You can also run a wax (non-soluble) pencil over the posts first, so later washes slip straight past them and leave them light.

The farm fields washed in, the watercolour pencil greens coming up very bright

Washed in, the greens come up very bright. That is normal at this stage; they get cooled down later.

Close-up of light fence posts held against a dark hedge in watercolour pencil

The fence-post challenge up close: a light green foundation, then the dark hedge worked behind the posts so they stay light against it.

5Keep the dappled light in the hedges

Build the middle-distance hedge with small circular strokes, then brush it in the same way to keep a feeling of dappled light. Leave a few areas dry, where the white paper sparkles through, for contrast.

Peter left the far left of that hedge unwashed on purpose, so you can see the difference between the dry and the brushed colour.

The middle hedge built with circular strokes for dappled light in the farm landscape

The middle hedge built with small circular strokes for dappled light, some areas left dry to keep the paper sparkling through.

Part three: pulling it together

6Cool the greens and deepen the darks

Those bright greens need calming. Peter cools them with a warm grey and some black, and adds black into the dark green for the deepest shadows along the hedge lines. Short vertical shading over the near grass knocks the brightness back too.

The aim is to make the overall picture darker so the white farmhouse stands out against it. That contrast is what makes the building read as sunlit.

The farm landscape with greens cooled and darks deepened so the white farmhouse stands out

The bright greens cooled with warm grey and black, and the darks deepened so the white farmhouse begins to stand out.

Carol's note: he painted it twice

Peter worked this scene more than once, and the finished picture below is his second go.

The most interesting change is the tree he brought in on the left. It is not really about copying the photo exactly: a tree there balances the weight of the farmhouse on the right and gives your eye somewhere to enter the picture.

That is artistic licence, and it is yours to use too. If your first attempt teaches you the scene, your second is often where it really sings. And remember Peter's cheerful rule: paper is cheap, so if a wash goes wrong, start again rather than fight it.

Peter Weatherill's fuller second version of the Pen y Fan farm with a tree added on the left

The second working, fuller this time, with a tree brought in on the left to balance the composition and the fields more fully developed.

Finished framed watercolour pencil painting of the farm near Pen y Fan with the Brecon hills behind

The finished, framed picture: dry detail worked over the washes, the white farmhouse glowing against the cooled landscape, and Pen y Fan hazy in the distance.

Common mistakes

Going strong before you know how your pencils wet

Brands vary hugely in pigment. Scribble and wet each colour on a scrap first, so a green you thought was gentle does not leap up and overwhelm the picture.

Painting the sky too dark

The sky is usually the lightest part of a landscape. Keep it paler than you think, and paler than the reference. You can always deepen it later; lightening it is much harder.

Having to erase your fence posts

Place your colour just to the right of each drawn post, or wax-resist the posts first. Either way you avoid erasing, which damages the paper surface.

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portrait of the author Carol Leather

I'm Carol Leather, a coloured pencil artist for over 15 years. Most of my teaching comes back to the same idea: realistic coloured pencil starts with structure, light and observation long before the colour goes down.

My work has featured in Ann Kullberg's Color Magazine, CP Magic and Color Pencil Treasures (vol 7). I'm a member of the UKCPS and was a prize winner in the Nature section of their Annual Open Exhibition in 2020.