Chris Campbell Watercolors

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Rocks and Rivers

Here is the post I did on rocks previously:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/684856811482463856

A stream added to rocks

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/1229907080213600384

Several methods for painting rocks and texture

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/4492119298978827931

At Dan Wiemer's workshop, I discovered a different method for painting rocks. You can use acrylic for part of it, and it calls for a lot of masking fluid, so we'll begin with that so it can dry while we learn other methods.

Sketch your rocks roughly, and draw in the cracks.

Generously mask out the rocks, both light and medium values. Leave open all the darkest cracks. Simplify the rocks wherever you can. You can invent a few more cracks if needed. Let this dry completely.

A Dan Wiemer tip on masking: Wet a masking brush completely, then add soap to the brush. Rub the soap into the bristles to coat them. Blot out extra water. You should be good to go for about 10 minutes before needing to wash the brush out. Dan even blows the masking dry, which I've always been told is a no-no.

A hint: If you have a light board, you can just lay your sketch underneath the paper, and use the light board to easily see where all the whites and medium tones are. It saves a lot of guessing and drawing.

Here is something I learned from Dan Wiemer, but modified to suit my style.

Mix some dark paints, then add a little--like a dime size-- MATTE MEDIUM to the mix. Dan Wiemer uses acrylic mixed with matte medium to thin it. I used watercolor instead of acrylic, either mixed with matte medium or matte medium OVER the darks. When I go over the rocks in a later step, I don't want my darks bleeding into the fresh colors. Matte medium will "set" the dark paint so I can freely paint over the darks.

Also, be sure to mix matte medium in a separate container, not in your WC palette. And either wash the brush out immediately to remove medium, or just use a brush you use for acrylics, so you don't destroy the bristles on a good brush.

When the mask is dry, use a mixture of dark paints (mixed with a drop of matte medium) over the entire rock area. Let it dry again.

While waiting for the paint to dry, I did some water. I wet the lower part of the rocks and extended it to the right side of the paper. I stroked in some cobalt blue, a bit of magenta, and some pthalo blue. While shiny, I STRETCHED some plastic wrap over the water area to create a rippled effect.

Remove the masking when completely dry. Make sure you like the pattern it created.

Then paint the medium value shadows and texture on the rocks. Use some of the texture methods from the 3rd blog. On this one, I dropped in colors wet into wet (using burnt sienna, Pthalo, lunar black for texture). While still shiny, I covered the rocks with tightly wrinkled plastic wrap.

Saran wrap held down with weight until dry

Saran wrap removed with some bits of masking for texture. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't leave the plastic wrap on long enough to get the effects I wanted. Win some, lose some.