I'm Robert Hewitt, and I'm about to paint a landscape in watercolor. Before I begin, I am examining the rough sketch that I will use as a guide as I paint.

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This is the rough pencil sketch on graph paper that I did "in the field" when I saw a scene that struck me as having "good bones" for a painting. As I paint, I may or may not follow the sketch exactly. Its purpose is to indicate relative masses and to give me a sense of direction.

In Step One, I use water to wet thoroughly the part of the painting on which there will be sky or water elements. In this and other images that show me painting, everything but the piece of paper on which I'm working has been posterized to make the evolving painting stand out from the background.

In Step Two, I lay in over these wet areas the broad sweeps of color that are the essence of any sky or water elements. The reason for wetting the sky-water areas beforehand is to allow the paint to behave in a fluid, almost melting manner, which suggests the movements typical of sky and water.

In Step Three, I begin to define the shape of the landscape, in this instance by laying in the first of the green elements that will surround the lake.

In Step Four, I begin to situate the mountain masses that will make up the largest area of the finished painting. At this stage, I am interested in a swath of color, not in highlights, shadows, or details.

In Step Five, I complete the initial definition of the large mountain mass in the background, then stop and assess my direction. I decide next to do my initial shadow ing and highlighting of the background mountain mass.

In Step Six, I begin to lay in the foreground, using a swath of paint to provide what amounts to a "color frame" for the bottom of the painting.

In Step Seven, I begin to color the mountain spurs that jut into the lake in the intermediate distance. I have decided that these will be forested, so I start to lay down green backgrounds of varying hues.

In Step Eight, I continue laying color on the mountain spurs, continuing to employ varying green hues.

In Step Nine, I begin to create the forest that will ultimately cover the left-hand mountain spur.

In Step Ten, I continue to create the forest on the left-hand mountain spur.

In Step Eleven, I begin to put forest on the right-hand mountain spur.

In Step Twelve, I begin to put shrubbery and trees in the foreground.

In Step Thirteen, I amplify the shrubbery in the foreground.

In Step Fourteen, I am essentially done with the painting. Using my rough sketch as a guide, I have spent approximately one-and-one-half hours to reach this point. The speed makes it more likely that I can realize an effect that mirrors the continual shifting of light that our eyes experience when we observe a landscape. I strive to keep the process very spontaneous because I have found that this is most likely to give me a satisfying result when working in watercolor.

In Step Fifteen, I closely examine the uncropped piece to determine if I want to do anything else to the painting before test-cropping it.

In Step Sixteen, I place the uncropped painting on an easel and use mats of varying sizes, openings, and orientations to test cropping possibilities.

In Step Seventeen, I add any finishing touches prompted by my examination and test-cropping.

In Step Eighteen, I crop the landscape. This is the end of the demonstration