How To Paint Fog Step By Step
Today I am demonstrating how to paint fog over a watercolor of a fishing village. There are many ways to paint fog and mist into a scene and this demo starts with a typical watercolor painting and is finished with adding the fog after the paint is dry. This adds the fog on top of your existing watercolor painting.
Above is a quick sketch in pencil on Arches 140 cold press watercolor paper. This scene is of a fishing village on Martha’s Vineyard called Menemsha. These fishing shacks have been there for many years and the village has not changed much. I am using a slide that I took 20 years ago but I think this place looks about the same today.
At this point I have painted the larger areas of the fishing village in watercolor. I painted around the fishing shacks as I worked wet into wet in the background sky and water. From there I painted wet into dry for the foreground areas. Below is the scene where I completed the fishing shacks after the background was dry by adding the roofs, windows and telephone poles. I completed the scene by adding the reflections in the foreground water.
How To Paint Fog
At this stage of the painting is when I will show you how to paint fog in this watercolor tutorial. After the paint was dry I mixed an acrylic white with cobalt blue watercolor, using a watery mixture I painted over the entire painting of the fishing village. Do not drag your brush back and forth too much. Lay in this wash of fog rather carefully so you do not disturb the watercolor paint underneath. After this was dry I added another wash similar to the first one so it looked more like a foggy morning at this fishing village on Martha’s Vineyard. This completes this watercolor demo of how to paint fog into a completed scene. Below is another painting done with this same technique for creating fog. Hope you enjoyed this and please pass this post on for others with the sharing buttons. If you have a questions please send a comment below. Thanks!
How to paint fog a painting tutorial by PJ Cook.
Very informative. This is a difficult technique to us beginners, but
with what you illustrated, it becomes much more “duable”.
Thanks!
Bill, Thanks for your input, I’m glad you were able to follow along with this painting technique.
Thanks, PJ
Nice
Thanks Emily I’m glad you found this watercolor tutorial useful.
I loved your painting of the fishing shacks
Especially the fog. I have alot of trouble doing fog in water color without having my
Dried water color painting smear badly.
I did a water color painting from Artist Wilson Bickford who painted strictly in
Acrylics and oil. I even tried spraying the painting with Krylon Fixative but then you just can’t paint over that area all. Anytime
I try to do a mist or fog it just looks too white and not transparent. Please answer and send some help suggestions.
I copied your step by step to paint in fog.
You use acrylic white with cobalt blue
Watercolor and a thin mix of the 2. You say be sure to go lightly over the dried painting so as not to disturb the psinting itself.
I loved your painting of the fishing shacks
Especially the fog. I have alot of trouble doing fog in water color without having my
Dried water color painting smear badly.
I did a water color painting from Artist Wilson Bickford who painted strictly in
Acrylics and oil. I even tried spraying the painting with Krylon Fixative but then you just can’t paint over that area all. Anytime
I try to do a mist or fog it just looks too white and not transparent. Please answer and send some help suggestions.
I copied your step by step to paint in fog.
You use acrylic white with cobalt blue
Watercolor and a thin mix of the 2. You say be sure to go lightly over the dried painting so as not to disturb the psinting itself.