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Miners Falls

Miners Falls, Watercolor & Gouache
Miners Falls
The upper peninsula of Michigan is a waterfall haven for hikers, photographers, and artists. This particular waterfall was especially spectacular. In late spring when you still have the winter runoff overflowing the rivers, creating an eye-catching sight among the waterfalls. You can hear the waterfall a few blocks away through the lush woods, which just heightens the experience. The waterfall was softly flowing but created a loud crashing down below.

QoR paints are the watercolor paints of course. Their color depth and purity are a few reasons they are my favorite. I kept my palette fairly simple. I used ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cobalt blue, raw sienna, and permanent white gouache. I have been experimenting with Indigo ArtPaper and have been very happy with the results. The rough textured watercolor paper complements the rural landscapes.

At the very beginning of this painting, I treated it in a very abstract way, getting the patterns of the lights and darks down and molding the mid-tones in between. I took the artistic license of course and added fallen branches and some smaller logs at the bottom of the falls. My last touch on the waterfall was to use a little bit of sandpaper along the edges of the waterfall and a razor blade to pick out a few splashes here and there.



Watercolor & Gouache    10 x 14