4 Easy Steps in Painting the Bernina Express Train by the Alps in Watercolor

During my trip to Europe in 2019, I’ve been to many places and most of these places inspired my landscape painting as you can see from my youtube channel. In this blog I will be sharing with you my process in painting the Bernina Express Train by the Alps in watercolor. I’m still finding my way in painting landscape paintings, trying out different subjects, in this case, is the red Bernina Express train we took from Tirano, Italy to Saint Moritz Switzerland.

The Reference Photo

This photo was shot in one of the scenic spots along the 2-hour trip to Switzerland. It was a trip full of beautiful scenery left and right of the train. It was an amazing day running through the Alpine Snow.

This painting is available in GoodMoodPrints!

4 Easy Steps in Painting the Bernina Express Train by the Alps in Watercolor

1. Sketch the important details of the painting, then paint the sky. I sketched out the train and the main branch of the 3 pine trees at the right side of the painting for guide, then I started painting the sky using M. Graham Cobalt Blue.



I painted the sky leaving enough white spaces for the clouds using wet-on-wet technique.


2. Painting the mountains. I painted the background mountains using a wet-on-dry technique, and it was quite challenging for me to achieve the look that I wanted. This method is something I need to keep trying to learn to achieve the snowy mountain as seen from the reference photo.




3. Painting the greenery. After painting the mountains, I started with the greenery at the back, starting with the light greens to establish the shape, then slowly adding in tones of green for the complete look.



Then I painted the pine trees on the right, this time in more detailed manner, starting with the light areas of the pines in random strokes, following the overall shape of the pine trees.



Then I added the midtones while the paint is still wet to have a nice blend.



I worked my way slowly in adding more definition to the trees, after which I added the darker tones for the darkest areas of the trees. This somehow gives life to the painting.



Beside the train is a grassy slope, and I painted it with the same greens from the pines.



I slowly worked my way with the shadows as well, adding in some brown to the ground near the train track.



4. Painting the train. This is the exciting part of the painting, being the main subject. The lovely bright red train is a good contrast to the surroundings.

In painting the train, I painted the bright red first, then while the painting is still wet, I added in the darker tone to achieve a smooth gradient.



After the painting has dried, I painted the windows, doors, and roof.



And added some finishing touches.



And that’s the process for painting the Bernina Express Train by the Alps in watercolor! hope you like how it turned out and that you find these steps useful!

The Finished Artwork

Here's the final piece! :)

 

9"x12"
Watercolor on Cotton Rough Paper (300gsm)

You can watch the process video on youtube to understand more, and if you follow through my tutorial, please feel free to tag me with your painting on Instagram so I can see your artwork too! For more tutorials like this, you can browse my youtube channel! Do hit the subscribe button to stay updated with the posts. Thank you!

For more landscape paintings, head on to the Landscape Pages.

You can also try my other paintings at:

• Galaxies
• Seas and Oceans