Our trek through landscapes that inspired Canada's Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven

Artists agree that success is often powered by how tones/values are treated in a watercolour painting.

Link mid-tones.  Apply greatest tonal contrast at your focal point. Consider the arrangement of your tones.

When I study my scene, I create thumbnail sketches to select my tones and compose the arrangement of tones. Others take grey-scale images of a scene or use grey-scale cards. Some blur their eyes. Yet for some lucky others, tonal work is intuitive and they skip these studies.

Here are three tonal steps I consider when preparing a plein air work.

STEP 1 (explore and study the full tonal range in the scene)

STEP 2 (link mid-tones)

STEP 3 (select high-contrast areas, especially at a focal point and secondary "resting places" in a scene)

As an artist, I can change what I see to suit the mood I wish to convey. One of my favourite artists writes "do not feel captive to what you see". After considering my tones and experimenting with some colours I created the following watercolour from the above study.