Watercolor Paint Mountains Step by Step (8 Easy Techniques)

Learn how to watercolor paint mountains step-by-step using 8 easy techniques in this art lesson. This beginning watercolor painting lesson will help you understand different ways of painting a mountain.

Practice painting a mountain and learn all the tips and tricks to make painting easier. This step-by-step tutorial will teach you how to paint a mountain in simple steps.

Watercolor painting of eight different styles of mountains next to some paintbrushes.

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Video Tutorial
Transcript
Materials
Colors
8 different techniques for painting mountains
Tips and tricks
Instructions
Frequently Asked Questions
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In this quick online video art class, practice the basic skill of sketching a mountain and painting it in. While painting these peaks you will also learn some basic watercolor stroke techniques.

Because theses easy mountain watercolors are so simple, they are a fun way to try out new approaches to using watercolor paint.

These exercises will help you train your hand and mind to work together and become a better artist.

Don’t worry if your paintings are not perfect. Just keep practicing. And have fun doing it!

Video Tutorial

Transcript

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Hi everyone. In this tutorial I will teach you how to watercolor paint a mountain, step by step, looking at eight easy different techniques that you can try out. The first technique is a dry brush technique. I sketch in my mountain just very lightly and then using a round brush, I load it up with just a little tiny bit of paint. Not very much paint at all and using the side, kind of scratch that paint right into the paper. I can turn my paper if it makes it a little bit easier.

I'm using a phthalo blue paint mixed in with just a little bit of black. But leaving those kind of sketchy white strokes in between. Now I'm adding in some shadowy areas using a darker purple paint, so I've mixed a little bit of crimson into my blue.

The next technique is a wet on wet technique. I load up my paintbrush this time with quite a bit of paint using the same middle blue.

Just paint in a simple mountain shape.

And while this is still wet load up my paintbrush with the purple, shadow color and then just paint shadows on one side. So I'm imagining that the light is hitting on the left side of the mountain and so the right side of the mountain is in shadow.

When these colors is dry they should blend together really nicely and give me kind of a misty effect.

The next technique is a Saran wrap technique using paint dobs. Again I'm going to sketch in a simple mountain shape.

This is also a wet on wet technique. So using clean water I'm going to wet the paper keeping each separate, each section separate.

Now daub in the paint, keeping these daubs, these little areas of paint separate.

You want to use the right amount of paint. Too much paint will start to blend together and make it all muddy and not enough paint, will not have enough paint on it. So it's a fun technique to try out and see how much paint is the right amount. I'm adding in daubs of purple paint on the right side to indicate shadow areas. There that looks like just about enough. So I'm going to take my Saran Wrap and scrunch it up, crinkle it up there and then lay it right into the paint. Push it in, make sure I have a lot of contact. I'm going let it dry completely and when I take it off we're going to see all the great textures that we end up with. The next mountain is a layering technique so I'm using my same blue paint but I've watered it down quite a bit so it's very light.

I'm going to let that layer completely dry before I add another layer of my mountain in on it.

So the next technique is a triangle mountain. I like to call it a two-tone triangle mountain. So sketching it in then just drawing a squiggly, zig zagging line that goes down the mountain and swoops off to one side.

Fill that mountain in with the middle tone blue paint.

And after it we painted, that we sketched in down the middle. So my layer, layering painting is still a little bit wet so I'm going to move on to the next technique while it, while these two mountains are still drying. This technique is called lines and washes. And so I'm using the tip of my brush, not pushing down very hard but I'm just creating some squiggly lines. Kind of think about that same squiggly line we just drew down the center of the mountain so think about that. Now I'm going to rinse out my paintbrush and using just the paint that's already on the paper, draw out those lines and pull out the color a little bit to make some nice soft washes.

Adding in a little bit more shadow and definition into some of these areas and then I'll move on, working one section of the mountain at a time. Now moving on, adding another mountain, just repeating these same shapes, these little squiggly lines. Rinsing out my brush and pulling out the paint to make some nice soft washes and then finally I add in some of the purple shadows to kind of add more detail and definition to this mountain.

This mountain, my layer mountain, is dry so I'm going to use that middle-tone blue to make another layer right in front. I'm not watering it down this time so the color will definitely be darker.

I'm going to let this second layer dry completely again before I add a third layer. You can add as many layers here as you would like.

Moving back to the two-tone triangle mountain, I'm just following that same squiggly line that I made. And if you can't see your line, just go ahead and make a new line.

Just keep it kind of nice and loose.

Then fill in the right side of the mountain

Now I'm going to make a silhouetted mountain. For this one I'm going to paint in the sky first and then paint a nice dark silhouetted mountain in front of it so focusing on the sky which is going to be darker at the horizon line and then get lighter as it moves up into the sky.

[Oops! I painted the gradient in the opposite direction. Lol. The sky is generally lighter at the horizon line.]

So I rinsed out my paintbrush and I'm adding a little bit of clean water in to make that transition

and add a little bit more pigment down towards the bottom as well.

Then I'm going to let that sky dry completely before I go back and add my mountain in over the top of it.

The last technique is a free form mountain range. I'm thinking about lights and darks and just using nice easy loose strokes. This is a really great technique to use if I'm looking at a mountain or a picture of a mountain. Using the middle-tone blue just making shapes of dark and then watering that down and pulling out that color into washed out shapes. And really thinking about just one section of the mountain at a

time and repeating on each section. And then finally going back in and adding some darker shadowy areas and then pulling out those, that purple into some nice soft washes as well.

Using purple paint I'm going to go ahead and add in that final layer.

And like I said you can add more layers to this if you'd like. I'm just going to leave it with three layers for this demonstration.

Finally going back in and adding a nice dark silhouetted mountain right in front of this sky.

Keeping my lines nice and loose imagining there are trees or craggy rocks on the top of this mountain giving the edge some texture.

I've mixed together black along with the blue and the crimson I've been using in the rest of these paintings.

Remember watercolors will dry a little bit lighter than they are when you put them on the paper so I'm going to add a little bit more pigment here and just make this a really nice dark shadowy mountain in the foreground.

And pulling up this saran wrap, you can see all the really great texture there. So lastly I can go back and erase all my pencil lines and make any changes to these. Bbut keep practicing all of these techniques as you can see there are many different ways to paint a mountain. I hope you have fun trying them all out. Thanks for watching.

Materials

Watercolor paper - I am using 9 by 12 inch Strathmore Vision cold press 140 lb. watercolor paper
Watercolor paint - tube watercolor paint on a pallet or a box kit of watercolor paints.
Paint brushes - I am using a #8 round and #4 round
Water
Paper towels

Colors

I am using Prussian blue (phthalo blue also works), black, and alizarin crimson to show these techniques. Don’t worry if you don’t have the same paint colors, you can use whatever you have on hand.

Mix a little black into the Prussian blue for a soft, natural middle-toned blue.

Combine Prussian blue with alizarin crimson to create a dark purple to use for the shadows.

For these exercises, you could use any color combination that you like. Use the darker of the colors for the shadow areas.

I chose to use adjacent colors. Adjacent colors are those which are next to each other on the color wheel. You could try red and orange or blue and green.

Alternately, you could choose one color and then mix in black for the shadows. For example, use red as the main color. Then mix a little black into the red to make a dark red for the shadows.

8 different techniques for painting mountains

Dry Brush

Dry brush painting of a watercolor mountain.

Lightly sketch in a mountain shape. Use a dry brush and pick up a small amount of blue paint at a time. Use the side of the paintbrush to lightly brush the paint onto the mountain. Allow some white to show through the paint.

Pick up a small amount of purple or darker-colored paint and use the same technique on one side of the mountain to indicate shadows. When it is dry, erase the pencil lines.

Wet on Wet

Wet on wet painting of a watercolor mountain.

Load up the brush with blue paint and paint in several mountains. While the paint is still damp add some purple paint on one side of the mountains for the shadows. When it dries the colors will blend together slightly for a misty effect.

Daubs and Saran Wrap

Saran wrap textured painting of a watercolor mountain.

Lightly sketch in a mountain shape. Use clean water to dampen each section of the mountain separately. Paint daubs of blue paint over both areas. Add daubs of dark purple paint on one side of each peak for shadows.

Crumple up a piece of saran wrap, large enough to fit over your mountain. Carefully place it over the area, making sure it has contact with the paint.

When it is dry remove the saran wrap and erase the pencil lines. This will give you a unique rocky texture, resembling jagged edges. This technique also works well with a variety of different colors.

Layering

Layered painting technique of a watercolor mountain.

Water down some of the blue paint. Use this to paint in several mountain and valley shapes. Let it dry.

Use the middle tone blue paint to paint another layer of mountains in front of the first layer. Let this layer dry as well.

Finally, paint some dark purple mountains in the foreground.

Using this technique, add as many different layers as you want. Just make sure to place the lighter colors I the background and darker ones in the foreground.

You can also experiment with leaving some of the layers a little damp when painting in the next layer. This can give you some interesting texture and blending.

Two-Tone Triangle

Two-toned triangle painting of a watercolor mountain.

Lightly sketch in a triangle-shaped mountain peak. Then sketch in a squiggly line that zig-zags down the mountain and then swoops off to one side.

Paint the entire mountain with the middle tone blue. After it dries, paint dark purple on one side of the mountain, following the zig-zag line. Erase any pencil lines showing when it is dry.

Lines and Washes

Lines and washes technique painting of a watercolor mountain.

Using loose strokes, paint a triangle-shaped mountain peak using the tip of the brush. Paint a loose squiggly line zig-zagging down from the top. These can be irregular strokes with breaks in between the lines.

Rinse out your brush. Then using the pigment that is already on the paper, draw out the paint into transparent washes. Repeat the process by adding some lines in dark purple, cleaning the brush, and then creating washes.

Paint each mountain peak separately using lines and washes.

Silhouette

Silhouette painting of a watercolor mountain.

Use the blue paint to paint the sky. The sky is usually lighter near the horizon line and darker higher in the sky. (Oops! In the demo, I painted the gradient in the opposite direction. Lol. Good thing it did not affect the mountain silhouette.) Blend out the paint toward the horizon line.

After the sky is dry, use a very dark mixture of black blue and crimson to paint in a silhouette of a mountain range. Make the edges slightly squiggly to indicate trees or rocks, or just make them straight.

Free Form Mountain Range

Free-form style painting of a watercolor mountain.

Paint in the darker shapes on the mountain. Clean the brush and then use some of the paint on the paper to pull out the paint into thinner washes. Make sure to leave some areas of white.

Add in some areas of dark purple on one side of the peak for shadows. Pull out some of the purple paint into transparent washes. Paint each peak or section of the mountain separately.

This is a great technique to use if you are looking at a mountain or a photo of one. Concentrate on depicting the areas of lights and darks.

Up close painting of different watercolor mountains nect to paintbrushes and a paint pallette.

Tips and tricks

Imagine the light source hitting the mountain in a certain direction. If the sun is shining in from the left side, the shadows will primarily be on the right side of each mountain peak.

Be aware of how much water you are using. The techniques can vary greatly depending on how wet or dry the paper is or how much pigment is concentrated in the paint mixture.

Use lighter colors in the distance and darker colors in the foreground to create a greater sense of dimension in the painting.

Play around with these different approaches. Don’t be afraid to combine the techniques in new ways. Building up layers and textures can add whole new dimensions to your paintings.

Since you are practicing, don’t forget that you can use both sides of your watercolor paper.

Instructions

Watercolor paintings of 8 different styles of mountains next to a watercolor pallette and paintbrushes.

Watercolor Paint Mountains Step By Step (8 Easy Techniques)

Equipment

Watercolor paper - I am using 9 by 12 inch Strathmore Vision cold press 140 lb. watercolor paper
Watercolor paint - tube watercolor paint on a pallet or a box kit of watercolor paints.
Paint brushes - I am using a #8 round and #4 round
Water
Paper towels

Instructions

Dry Brush

Lightly sketch in a mountain shape. Use a dry brush and pick up a small amount of blue paint at a time. Use the side of the paintbrush to lightly brush the paint onto the mountain. Allow some white to show through the paint.
Pick up a small amount of purple or darker-colored paint and use the same technique on one side of the mountain to indicate shadows. When it is dry, erase the pencil lines.

Wet on Wet

Load up the brush with blue paint and paint in several mountains. While the paint is still damp add some purple paint on one side of the mountains for the shadows. When it dries the colors will blend together slightly for a misty effect.

Daubs and Saran Wrap

Lightly sketch in a mountain shape. Use clean water to dampen each section of the mountain separately. Paint daubs of blue paint over both areas. Add daubs of dark purple paint on one side of each peak for shadows.
Crumple up a piece of saran wrap, large enough to fit over your mountain. Carefully place it over the area, making sure it has contact with the paint.
When it is dry remove the saran wrap and erase the pencil lines. This will give you a unique rocky texture, resembling jagged edges. This technique also works well with a variety of different colors.

Layering

Water down some of the blue paint. Use this to paint in several mountain and valley shapes. Let it dry.
Use the middle tone blue paint to paint another layer of mountains in front of the first layer. Let this layer dry as well.
Finally, paint some dark purple mountains in the foreground.
Using this technique, add as many different layers as you want. Just make sure to place the lighter colors I the background and darker ones in the foreground.

Two-Tone Triangle

Lightly sketch in a triangle-shaped mountain peak. Then sketch in a squiggly line that zig-zags down the mountain and then swoops off to one side.
Paint the entire mountain with the middle tone blue. After it dries, paint dark purple on one side of the mountain, following the zig-zag line. Erase any pencil lines showing when it is dry.

Lines and Washes

Using loose strokes, paint a triangle-shaped mountain peak using the tip of the brush. Paint a loose squiggly line zig-zagging down from the top. These can be irregular strokes with breaks in between the lines.
Rinse out your brush. Then using the pigment that is already on the paper, draw out the paint into transparent washes. Repeat the process by adding some lines in dark purple, cleaning the brush, and then creating washes.
Paint each mountain peak separately using lines and washes.

Silhouette

Use the blue paint to paint the sky. The sky is usually lighter near the horizon line and darker higher in the sky. (Oops! In the demo, I painted the gradient in the opposite direction. Lol. Good thing it did not affect the mountain silhouette.) Blend out the paint toward the horizon line.
After the sky is dry, use a very dark mixture of black blue and crimson to paint in a silhouette of a mountain range. Make the edges slightly squiggly to indicate trees or rocks, or just make them straight.

Free Form Mountain Range

Paint in the darker shapes on the mountain. Clean the brush and then use some of the paint on the paper to pull out the paint into thinner washes. Make sure to leave some areas of white.
Add in some areas of dark purple on one side of the peak for shadows. Pull out some of the purple paint into transparent washes. Paint each peak or section of the mountain separately.
This is a great technique to use if you are looking at a mountain or a photo of one. Concentrate on depicting the areas of lights and darks.

Notes

Imagine the light source hitting the mountain in a certain direction. If the sun is shining in from the left side, the shadows will primarily be on the right side of each mountain peak.

Be aware of how much water you are using. The techniques can vary greatly depending on how wet or dry the paper is or how much pigment is concentrated in the paint mixture.

Use lighter colors in the distance and darker colors in the foreground to create a greater sense of dimension in the painting.

Play around with these different approaches. Don’t be afraid to combine the techniques in new ways. Building up layers and textures can add whole new dimensions to your paintings.

Since you are practicing, don’t forget that you can use both sides of your watercolor paper.
You can also experiment with leaving some of the layers a little damp when painting in the next layer. This can give you some interesting texture and blending.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you paint mountains in watercolor?

There are many ways to paint mountains. One simple way is to use a dry brush technique.

Lightly sketch in a mountain shape. Use a dry brush and pick up a small amount of blue paint at a time. Use the side of the paintbrush to lightly brush the paint onto the mountain. Allow some white to show through the paint.

What color do you paint mountains?

You can use any color to paint mountains. Snow-capped mountains often appear in blue or grey tones. Tree-covered mountains are often green. Desert mountains are usually warm tones of orange, red, and yellow.

If painting in a realistic style it can be helpful to look at a real mountain or a photo of one to accurately paint the colors you see.

How do you paint snow on a mountain?

Let plenty of white paper show through your watercolor paint to indicate a snowy mountain in a painting. A dry brush technique, lines and washes, and simply painting in darks and lights where they appear are great methods for painting snow.

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Please leave your questions, comments, and ratings below!

Video Tutorial

Transcript

Materials

Colors

8 different techniques for painting mountains

Tips and tricks

Instructions

Watercolor Paint Mountains Step By Step (8 Easy Techniques)

Equipment

Instructions

Dry Brush

Wet on Wet

Daubs and Saran Wrap

Layering

Two-Tone Triangle

Lines and Washes

Silhouette

Free Form Mountain Range

Notes

Frequently Asked Questions

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