Little red house with a field of white flowers

This hour-long video covers the following material.

About This Painting

A quick, informal sketch of a small red hut — possibly Norwegian or Icelandic in character — surrounded by rough, textured grasses and wildflowers. This was painted as a live group sketch session, with the emphasis on keeping things loose and achievable within an hour. The reference photo was in portrait format but the painting works well in landscape, which films better and gives more room for the sky and foreground.

The scene has a deliberately grungy, textured feel — overcast light, dull greens, rough grasses — and the approach leans into that rather than trying to brighten it up.

The Pencil Drawing

The hut is the main structure. A few angles to check: the roofline is not quite horizontal, the side wall is at a modest angle, and there's roughly a 45-degree drop between two key corner points. The hut has a slight lean to it that gives it character — don't over-correct this in the drawing. Add a line for the back hill and leave the wildflowers in the foreground undrawn, since they're white and an outline would make them look stiff.

Painting the Sky

Wet the sky area and the back hill together. Mix ultramarine blue with a little burnt umber and a touch of purple for a granulating gray sky — deliberately dull to match the overcast mood of the scene. Ultramarine granulates on the paper surface as it dries, creating natural texture in the sky without any further effort, as long as the paint is applied wet enough.

Try to leave a few fine white streaks in the wet wash for cloud breaks. In a hot or dry environment, the paper may dry faster than expected — if the sky dries before you've finished, don't fight it. The granulation from mixing colours rather than using paint straight from the tube will give enough interest on its own.

The Grass and Foreground

Mix sap green into the leftover sky mix (ultramarine, burnt umber, purple) to create a dull, textured green. Add a little sepia — a heavy, granulating pigment that sinks into the paper and creates natural texture as it dries. Apply this to the foreground grasses and let it merge softly into the base of the hut.

Don't wait for the sky to dry completely before starting the grass — letting the two areas meet while still damp creates a soft transition between sky and hill that feels natural. Keep the brush strokes directional, following the slope and growth direction of the grass.

The Hut

The hut is a strong, muted red — not a bright primary red but something more worn and weathered. The roof is corrugated iron in a neutral gray-blue. Paint the red walls first with a warm mix, keeping the windows and door openings clear. The corrugated iron roof gets horizontal or slope-direction strokes with the occasional fine white gap left to suggest the corrugation ridges catching light.

The light source is from the left, so the right-hand wall and the underside of the eaves are in shadow. Add a cool blue-gray shadow wash (ultramarine with a little sepia) under the eaves and inside the windows once the base colours are dry. This shadow is what makes the hut feel solid rather than flat.

Wildflowers

The white wildflowers in the foreground are painted last, using white gouache. Work with a small brush and think about the structure of the plant — stalks rising from the ground, flowers at the top. The flower heads are small clusters or individual blooms; don't overthink the shapes. Leave some stalks without flowers. Add a very light touch of the purple-gray shadow mix to the left side of each flower head to give it a slight three-dimensional quality.

A few spots of colour here and there — not just a row across the bottom — make the planting look natural.

Pen Work

Dark brown ink in a fine pen, on the shadow sides only: the right-hand edges of the hut walls, the underside of the eaves, shadow inside the windows. The corrugated iron roof needs only loose, approximate marks — corrugated iron doesn't suit tight, precise pen work. A few pen marks in the foreground grasses stop all the line work from sitting only on the building.

The white gel pen picks up the sunlit roofline edge and any other bright accents catching the left-hand light. If the gel pen stops flowing, dip the tip briefly in water and wipe clean — watercolour pigment can clog the ball.

Sign with the gel pen in a clear area of sky or ground.