Trevi Fountain - Step 8

Most of my attention at this point is on the rocks, waterfall, and water. Water is usually best rendered with soft edges and this is a key part of this piece. The softness of the water contrasts nicely with the harder edges of the figures and achitecture in the background.

For the water in the foreground, I've added some little ripples. It's naturally choppy because of the splashing waterfalls, so no big waves, just lots of little ripples going every which way. A turqoise mixture of Cobalt with a bit of Winsor Green works well. I'll also take some of this color later and introduce hints of it in the figures and shadows for overall harmony.

I've further defined the rocks on the right side by adding some of the shadows. It's amazing how much more three-dimensional something looks once you begin to add the darks.

The job of defining the rocks under the waterfall is not quite so easy. In fact, it's a pain in the neck! I add gradually darker layers but I have to be very careful to keep the edges soft. Otherwise, the water will appear "cut out". Jagged edges (like in the last step) and outlines that are not fully defined are the key to making the rocks seem like they are behind the falling water.

Trevi Fountain - Step 7

It's time to start sculpting the rocks and figures by adding some dark areas to give them form. It's the shadows that define the rocks and make them seem three-dimensional. Notice how I've tried to make the shadows visually interesting by fluctuating from warm to cool. At this point, I also wanted to put in my darkest area so that I could balance everything else according to that value. This usually helps keep me from being too light in other areas.



I'm still not completely sure how I'm going to tackle the falling water, so I tread lightly. The first step is to paint around the white parts of the water with the lightest version of the underlying color.

Now, this doesn't look much like water yet, so you have to be patient. All I'm doing here is starting to define the shapes underneath the water. You don't want the rocks to be very clear since you are seeing them through a wall of water. It's too difficult to paint soft, wet-into-wet edges here since I'm trying to paint around the white water, so I have to rely on jagged outlines to make the rocks appear to have soft, blurry edges (picture an impressionistic painting).

All in all, I'm pleased with how things are turning out so far, but I realize the most important and difficult parts of the painting are still to come.

Trevi Fountain - Step 6

Ahh, the fun part - the water! Yes, water is difficult to paint. Yes, it is moving and can look a million different ways depending on the light, the type of water, what's underneath the water etc., etc. But, if you really just look at it as shapes and values like anything else you're trying to paint or draw, then it's just not that hard. (now faces and hands, that's another story entirely!)

One thing to be aware of when painting water is your edges. Generally, you want them to be soft, especially in the underlying layers. As you can see here, everything is wet-into-wet, and you want your brushstrokes to be coming STRAIGHT towards you (notice the pool at the top of the fountain). Anything that reflects on the surface of the water will come STRAIGHT towards the viewer and be a mirror image of the object being reflected. I can't tell you how many paintings I've seen ruined by reflections that didn't line up.

The falling water is definitely going to be the toughest part of this painting. In my initial drawing, I tried to highlight the parts of the water that would be white, but I'm going to have to save them without leaving hard edges (since I want the water to look like it's moving). For right now, I've just painted the white parts of the water that are in shadow. It's always funny to me how that area looks dark right now, but will actually be one of the lighter areas once I'm done.

As a side note, I love the turquoise (Cerulean and Winsor Green, I think) color of the water because it provides such a nice contrast with the warm colors of the figures (and it's one of my favorite colors), but I'll have to be sure to carry that color up into the background later and vice versa to provide balance.

Night Scene - Step 10

Step 10 - Completion

For this final stage, I knew the sky needed to be stronger and darker to give the light areas the proper glow. Continuing to "push" a watercolor at this point can be a risky move, since it's not usually possible to go lighter again and you also never know when you're gonna have one of those "@%#*! water has a mind of its own" moments. That's just one of the thousand or so decisions you'll have to make during a painting, but, like I mentioned before, 9 times out of 10 I make the painting better by pushing it a little farther. The most important thing is to not be afraid to make that decision - it's not like it's your last painting ever and, no, your life does not depend on it, no matter how much time and paint you've already put into it.

Having made my decision to continue, I closed my eyes (just kidding), turned the piece upside down again and hit the upper part of the sky with a strong mixture of Alizarin Crimson and Pthalo Green. In this case, I'm really happy that I decided to go darker. Overall, the painting is very close to my initial plan, and I feel like everything is working (despite the fact that there are always little areas that only I notice where I could have handled things better).

So, there you have it, the Charles Bridge in Prague at night in watercolor. Hopefully, you're all ready now to go tackle that night scene that you've been putting off for the last three years!

Just remember, there's no such thing as the perfect painting, your next one's going to be your best, and it really is about the journey, not the destination.

Night Scene - Step 9

Step 9

At this stage of the painting, I'm adding the final darks and details to finish things up. I finished the tree over the middle part of the bridge, some of the rooftops, and the rest of the water.

Then, I always like to take the painting off of my table and put it across the room (at least 15 - 20 feet away) so that I can get a true feel for the type of impact it will have. I've been so close to it for so many hours, that this is the only way I can objectively see if it's matching my original idea for the piece and if it's truly working as a painting. In this case, I noticed right away that the sky wasn't nearly as strong as I wanted it to be. This is a scary time because it's so easy to ruin something in watercolor that you can't ever fix, but I know this will be a better piece if I can darken the sky and smooth out some of the brushstrokes.

Don't ever be afraid to keep working on something that needs it just because you're worried about making a mistake! You will learn so much more about painting by making that mistake than you will by being timid.

Night Scene - Step 8

Step 8

I've pretty much finished up the water here, and I'm pretty satisfied with how it's looking. The values and colors are working, so I will probably only need a few adjustments as I wrap things up.

As you can see, I've also added a couple more washes to the sky. The first one was basically a warm, dark mixture of Burnt Siena and Alizarin to smooth out some of the brush strokes and get rid of some of the Ultramarine Blue (too purple). The second wash was basically the same except this time, with the painting upside-down, I added a black mixture (Pthalo Green and Alizarin Crimson) that got heavier as I moved down towards the bottom.

At this stage in a painting, I spend as much time, if not more, just looking and analyzing as I do actually painting.

Night Scene - Step 7

Step 7

I started to really work on the water here. Starting on the left side, I painted a medium-dark purple-gray mixture around the light reflections. In some places, I bridged the gap between these two areas with a wash of pure Cadmium Red to give the lights a glow. Then, once dry, I came over the top of these areas with darker, vertical lines for the reflections of windows, dark shapes, etc. (Just make sure your reflections are directly below what's being reflected.) I made the reflections with jagged horizontal strokes to show the movement of the water.

I also finished some of the darker parts of the buildings behind the bridge, the bridge tower, and some of the bridge details.

Five Of My Favorite Living Watercolorists

Okay, this isn't an easy task. There are so many good watercolorists out there working today, that this is like trying to list my five favorite types of gelato or my five favorite sunsets ever witnessed. Stubborn guy that I am, I decided to try anyways, so here goes. In no particular order, these five artists "wow" me with their work every time I see it:

• Steve Hanks
• Paul Jackson
• Dean Mitchell
• H.C. Dodd
• Judy Morris

There's at least 10 more I could put in there (but then that would be my fifteen favorite, wouldn't it?) Anyways, if you like watercolor and you're not familiar with any of these artists, do yourself a favor and look them up.

Night Scene - Step 6

Step 6

I've added another wash to the sky. This time, I added a little more Ultramarine Blue to the mixture to darken it. I've got a ways more to go, but you can already see that the buildings are looking more "lit up". It's always interesting to see how changing one part of a painting (darkness, color, etc.) changes every other part as well. Each painting is a supreme balancing act, and you have to really know what you want the finished product to look like so you don't get lost in these middle stages and leave it unfinished.

I'm also ready to start working on the reflections in the water now. This will be a very important part of the final piece, so I really need to pay attention to how it's handled. The best way to paint water is to look it as abstract shapes and values and just paint what you see (as opposed to what you "think" you see - it's that whole right brain, left brain thing). Come to think of it, that's pretty much the best way to paint anything. If you get the shapes right and the values right, then you've got it. See, you had no idea painting was that easy!

I also worked a bit more on the dark parts of the bridge tower and the buildings to the left. They're getting closer to completion.

Night Scene - Step 5

Step 5

Ah, the sky. I figured that the only way to really have a deep, dark sky was to build up alot of layers. This first one is an attempt to establish the overall warm glow created by all of the city lights. I basically mixed up Burnt Siena and Alizarin Crimson with just a bit of Ultramarine Blue.

If you take a closer look at the photo, you'll notice that my pencil is now at the top. That's because I actually flipped the piece upside-down. That way, I could paint around all of the buildings (and especially the lights) without having to worry about the paint drying (which happens REALLY fast here in AZ) and leaving strange looking marks. It's also easier to add more blue towards the bottom (actually the top) so that the sky gets darker as it gets farther away from the lights, etc.

I'm not too worried about all the brush strokes you can see at this point, since I'll be adding many more layers before I'm through.

Completely unrelated thought:

Anyone looking for a quick laugh should check out Zach Braff's blog, http://www.zachbraff.com/. Back in the pre-kids days when we could actually sit down and watch a primetime TV show (and yes, I do know there's a little thing called tivo now), my wife and I loved the show Scrubs. It is goofy, yes, but also incredibly well written and innovative, and just a whole lot of fun. And I've liked just about every other thing he's been a part of. Anyways, his blog is about the same, a well written and funny stream of consciousness that lets us into his world in an honest and hilarious way.

Or, maybe it's just because we're both in our thirties and HUGE celebrities that I feel a connection (actually, I'm not even a celebrity in my own house.)

Either way, check it out.

Night Scene - Step 4

Step 4

More work on the darks here. I wanted to let the warm colors from the lights bleed down into the bridge, so I had to be careful to keep those edges soft (as opposed to the hard edges more commonly seen in watercolor.)

Notice also how the buildings begin to become more ambiguous as they recede off into the distance. With any landscape, things become less distinct and have less detail and contrast as they get farther away. The term for this is atmospheric perspective and, although somewhat difficult to achieve in watercolor, is a great way to establish depth.

Night Scene - Step 3

Step 3

I laid down the light reflections in the water using a variety of colors and working wet-into-wet to allow the colors to run together. I also started to add some of my first darks with the bridge, trees, and some of the windows, rooftops, etc. Notice how this already makes the buildings seem lighter.

I also put my first wash in the sky, keeping it wet, but being careful to paint around my light areas. I wanted the sky to have a very warm glow, so this first wash was pure Alizarin Crimson with a little Burnt Siena mixed in.

How to Paint a Night Scene in Watercolor

For my recent painting, "Lights of Prague," I was presented with some unique challenges. It was my first night scene, so the most important element would be the lighting (or lack thereof).

My initial inspiration came from the beautiful lights of the city being reflected in the river, as well as the interesting architecture, so I had to make sure these became my focal points.

Step 1

I drew out the scene using watercolor pencils (that way the lines disappear once they get wet.) Then, I went to work on what would eventually be the lightest parts of the painting. This process is done completely wet into wet, and I love to drop in pure colors so that the water can mix them for me. I was very careful to avoid the few areas that were to remain white (as you may know, white in watercolor comes from the paper, so don't lose it!)

The hardest part here is to paint dark enough. The areas that look so dark now will look so much lighter once I surround them with dark colors. When you're first starting out, it's probably better to err on the side of caution and be a little too light. Just don't be afraid to go back in later to darken things if the values (lights and darks) need to be adjusted.

Step 2

Again, here I'm painting the areas that are hit with the lights of the city. I'm more used to painting midday scenes, so it's amazing how dark it felt like I was painting some of these areas. I just had to have faith that the buildings would look "lit up" once I put in the shadows and night sky.

Welcome

Welcome to my first ever blog. For those of you who know me and my limited affection for technology, "that really hot place" has not frozen over (although I may have just seen a pig fly by my window). I just realized that this was the perfect way for me to keep in touch with all of you who are already familiar with my work and simultaneously connect with many new people. Also, for those of you who have been interested in me teaching at some point, hopefully I'll be able to explain some of my processes, etc. here as well as showing some of my works in progress.

For this first official blog, I'll keep things simple and just tell you a little bit about myself. I've been painting in watercolor for about 12 years or so, and doing it full time for about the past 8 or 9. My greatest inspiration comes from my travels, primarily Italy and France. There is something (actually many things) that just grabbed hold of me on my first trip and hasn't let go yet.

Here is a piece that I painted from a photo I took of Portofino, Italy. Kinda pretty there (and the food ain't too bad either - Liguria is Mecca for pesto lovers like myself!)

"Colors of Portofino" watercolor 22" x 30"

And here is one of my newest pieces and one that I'm really happy with. It's the first time I've attempted a night scene. It's tough to get watercolors this dark without overworking them - I had to use lots of layers.

"Lights of Prague" watercolor 15" x 30"

In my next blog, I'll show you all the steps that were involved in this painting. Until then, thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed it!