Loose Watercolor Door: Texture, Shape & Soft Florals | Architectural Study

1. Welcome – Painting a Loose Watercolor Door: In this class, we're going to be painting a loose watercolor door with a soft textured wall and a simple touch of florals. This piece is a really nice balance between structure and softness. We'll be working with the shape of a door and the surrounding wall while keeping everything relaxed and not overly detailed. I'll show you how to suggest the lines and panels of the door without making them feel stiff. And how to build a gentle stone texture in the wall using loose layers and natural movement in the paint. We'll also add a small floral element to bring in a bit of color and warmth and to keep the overall piece feeling light and inviting. As we go, I'll guide you step by step, but you can always adjust things to make it your own. Your lines don't need to be perfect and your texture may turn out a little different, and that's exactly what gives each painting its own character. By the end of today's class, you'll have a finished piece that feels both structured and relaxed and something you can feel really good about displaying. If you enjoy this class, take a look for the other two classes that are in the same series so that you can have a trio of architectural watercolor paintings. 2. Materials (Simple Setup): Today, we're going to paint an architectural piece and add in just a little bit of a flower over here to the side. If you wanted to, you could add a trellis and add some more flowers to one side or the other, or add baskets on both sides with some flowers. However you want to make yours is the way that it should be done. So I'm going to do something similar to this, and what I've done is I just used my carbon paper that we've used in other classes, and I laid that down, shiny side down. And then I laid this on top of it, making sure that it was square and in line where I wanted it. Then I did a very loose outline of just the door and the mantle and just a general idea. I decided not to put in the stone work because I'm going to do that a little bit differently. But here you can see with the carbon copy paper, made the lines all over, I just use a simple pencil to trace that out I wasn't really particular. I didn't try to get every single line in here. I just did some basic outlining here just so that I have the general sense. On my paper. So this is my watercolor paper. This is a cold press. This is cotton. It's an eight by eight. And when I printed out my paper, this is in your class project, you can find this document. And if you print it the way that it's been attached there, it will print full size all the way, you know, all the way the whole page, which might be too big for you. So if you're painting it smaller, make sure you change the size before you hit Print. This one is a four by six. I shrunk this down to a four by six and printed it here. But I did give it to you full size so that no matter what size you need, you can print it to the size that you want it to be. So I'm going to use this as a kind of a guide of what I'm looking for, but I did do go ahead and trace it on here. I have this eraser. This is like a soft sided eraser. It has the fibers on the inside, and I'll just lightly go across here and remove some of that excess, ink or the paint. I mean, excuse me, the carbon, just to remove some of it so that when I go to paint, I'm not um having that show up all over my paper when it's finished. So I like to lighten it by erasing the paper, the carbon. So now it's nice and light, and I can go ahead and get started. Of course, you're going to need to have your watercolor paper, some water, your paints, a couple brushes. Use whatever size brushes you happen to have. I use the size eight most of the time round, but I also have some extras of other sizes available. And then because mine is going to be very neutral and soft based, I am going to get out some of my squash. I have a white titanium. I also have this squash, which is called pale orange blush, which I might use. I'm not sure. But then I also have my Daniel Smith buff titanium. Anytime I'm doing architecture or something, this is going to be my go to. I pull this out quite a bit. I can mix this in with a darker gray and soften it. I can mix it in with a pink or blue or green, and it just is such a beautiful thing. It actually softens it. So here you can see this is my buff titanium, my white, and my light rose pale rose, excuse me. So I'll be using those. I have my spree bottle nearby, and I will wet these down so that they're ready to go and whit down my whole palette. If you don't have a palette like this and what you have is something similar to this, that's fine. This will work as well. There is usually a square in here that is on the whiter side and sometimes some other colors that you can use to mix with it to create some of these colors that I have. So just because you don't have these particular shades, it's okay. You can just use the paints that you already have and mix your colors so that they are similar to what you are looking for. So I am going to be making this into more of like an antique barn style with maybe some bricks or, um, stonework around the outside edge, you paint them however you want to. You'll notice here I did not trace out all these little stones, but if you would like to go ahead and paint those individually, that's fine. I think I'm going to be doing something a little bit different with that. So that is up to you as to how you would like to do that. Now that you have your paints, your paper, your brushes, and some water, we are ready to get started. 3. Sketching the Door Shape: We're ready to get started with our project here, our door. I take a look at this door, and I think I'm going to be making my door a shade of green. It'll be a very soft green, kind of have some brown tones added into it. This mantel piece that I have here is going to have some brown in it and maybe some gray. I'll be using a lot of gray and brown for this whole project, including the base and maybe even a little bit of floor, and then I'll be putting around the edges more of this brick stonework. I just don't think I'm going to be painting each individual piece, but you do yours the way you want to. And then I have a little flower pot with some loose little flowers up in here, which I'll also be adding. So we'll get to that as well. I think I'm going to start with my door and my mantle and this piece, and then we'll start adding in all the extras. So I'm going to clean up this because I don't want my reds mixing at this point. So I'm just going to push that back a little bit, because I'm going to be ing the browns and my grays, and I don't want to mix in that red. So I'm just going to push that back a little bit and spray down this black. To get started, I want to start right in with my door. As you look at the door, you are going to have some wood frames, and so I want to make sure that my brush strokes go along with the grain. They're going to go up and down here, but then they're going to go left to right for these, and I'll same with the mantle. I'll have my brush strokes going left to right, but these I'll be going vertically. And the centers of my windows are going to be darker because I'm going to be saying that I'm looking into a dark room where I can't see in there, but I'll be adding in some highlights so that you get a little bit of a reflection so that you see maybe that these are glass windows in here. So let's get started. And I think I'm just going to move these out of the way. I think what I'm going to do is get started with using my size eight. I want to start with that green. I do have a little bit of green in there, and I think I'll just add just a little bit more. It's mixing with this buff titanium, which is really nice because that's making it nice and soft. I'm not sure what that dried piece is. Nice and soft color green, not too bright, not too bold because this is supposed to look like an antique door. So I'm going to go ahead and you can see my lines are all wobbly and crooked. I did not use a ruler. I was not trying to make this perfect because that's my style. My style is much more relaxed and casual and carefree. If you would like yours to be straight and perfect, then you should get out a ruler when you go to make these so that they're more precise. But when I paint, mine is going to be always a little bit more sketchy, a little bit more loose and casual. So I'm just going to add in just some lines here. I'm not filling it in edge to edge. I'm just putting in some of the lines of this vertical door here and this vertical panel that's over on this side. I can lay this over here next to this there we go. I think you can see what I'm referring to. And you can see I'm just creating this edge here. I'm going to rinse off my paintbrush. Always have a rag nearby where you can dry off your paintbrush a little bit, then I'm just going to come back in with just some clean water and fill in some of this. It just creates a little bit of a highlight because some of it's lighter and some of it's darker. Then I'm going to go do this left to right side. Here some of it's going to just have a little bit darker edges. You can always come back in and put in another layer if you want to have another layer. See, this does go all the way down so I wasn't sure when I was first painting if that goes all the way down or not. It does. Part of it, when you're adding in these extra layers, it makes it look a little bit more like wood grain because you have little definition or maybe that paint is chipping off a little bit here and there. Here I want to go this way. I rinse off my brush and smooth it out a little bit. It's okay to leave white spaces. It actually helps quite a bit. So go ahead and leave some white space. I'll add in another color on top of that another layer, not another color, but another layer. And then I want to put one here. I'm going to be also adding in some panels here. So just really sketchy, really loose. Um So that's going to be the window, like the panes in there. So I think I'm going to leave that the center area, and I'll come back to that with another color. Let me add in some darker green. Really helps it look like wood when you add in that little bit more water, a little bit less water. Another layer. Okay. Soften it a little bit here and there because I cleaned off my paintbrush, but it's wet and my paint is wet, so now I can kind of come in here and soften those edges. It's our general door. I'll do the frame a different color, and I'll do the inside of the frame windows a different color as well. Okay, but I want to wait until that dries completely. And then we'll be adding in some details. We'll get out some of this gray, and we can add in some date details on top of this. This was just to get the foundation going. So I think what I want to do is actually take my paper towel and clean up some of this green just so it doesn't get over everything. Okay, so I think what I'm going to do is come in with this gray. It's just a really soft gray. Maybe even add in just a touch of a golden mustard, so I have a little variation, kind of like you would if you were looking at stonework. The stone sometimes is more gray and sometimes is more um brown, but I don't want that red, and it keeps seeping over here, so I want to push that back. It's a little gray color, a little brown. And then maybe even too much. This in there. As I kind of move my way across, it's going to get, you know, more into the golden colors and more into the gray colors. All right. I think I'm going to start with this middle and do kind of like a edge to this door. This is kind of like the door frame. And now, this is the step. So I'm just going to start it with a really light color, and we're going to be adding to that later. Same with up here with this mantle. Just going to use what's left over in my paint brush and just add a little bit of that. I'm going to come in with that gray that I made and add just a little bit more here and there. Now, I don't have necessarily on this particular one that the sun is shining in one particular direction. Maybe yours is, maybe you have an idea for the way you want yours. But I'm just having it be the sun is facing it directly. I don't have to worry too much about shadows. If you ever get something that you feel like it's just too much, you can just rinse off your brush, dry it as best you can with your paper towel or your cloth, and then just come back over and just pick it up and move it away and soften those edges. This is the fun part about watercolor is depending on your style, you can be just really kind of quick with it and casual and it doesn't have to be real precise. It can just kind of be really kind of fun and casual. I do want to have a little front edge, so I'm going to make a um a little line here a little little edge. To my step to define that a little bit more. And also to define that base. I think I actually want my smaller paint brush. I'm going to go to a more of a detail brush, grab a little bit darker color to create that base of that door. Okay. I am going to add in a little door knob and a little key. And I'm going to add my edge to my door over here in this darker gray also along the top. It's not a perfect line. I'm just kind of sketching it out there. 4. Building the Wall Texture: Yeah. Okay. You can see how that's starting to form and starting to look like a door. So I do want to wait until this dries, this green dries a little bit more before I go to add in the center because I want to be careful about that. But I think I'm going to move over here and do a flower pot. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to use this small detail brush, and I'm going to use some of this pink from the the pale rose. I'm just going to be adding in just a little bit here. They're not specific flowers, they're more dots, dropping them over the edge of the pot, putting some bigger spots, putting some lighter spots. Definitely drooping over the edge of the pot because I want that edge to be covered in flowers. Then maybe coming up a little bit, it's coming towards the door. We're going to be adding some darker red on top of this. If you did the window sill class, then you know what I'm talking about because we did the same thing in that one. But this is just a little different flower and I'm going to have it come all the way down here, it's dropping all the way down. Now, because I didn't use as much water, I can come in with my red or my pink. I'm going to add in just a little bit into the centers of some of those. They might be too wet still. I have to wait. I think I'm going to wait. It's blending a little bit too much. I have to wait for some of that other pink, the lighter pink to finish and I can't do the pot yet. I think now I can move back over here and do the centers of the windows themselves. I'm going to use that gray. But I'm going to wet down. This is just the glass, the window panes themselves. Just enough. To have just a little bit of water on here, not soaking. I don't want it dripping in water. I want it just enough water so that it'll flow without being puddles of water. Anytime I see puddles, I'm wiping them up. It's just enough water so that the paper is slightly damp. Then using some of that gray, I'm going to see how it's just slightly damp and it's just moving it. It's just helping move that paint around just a little bit. Now, to create your reflection, you leave some spots clear without any paint, and that's going to be creating your reflection. We're going to be making some spots darker. And you can always add in a second layer to exaggerate that. So this is just the first layer. Okay? Then I can drip in dip into my darker color and add in just a little bit of that darker paint. I'll move it around in a second. Now, I did say that I don't have a light source so that I'm just having it coming straight on it, but I am keeping these bottom left hand corners being my lightest spot that maybe that's where the reflection is coming from and making my other areas darker. Now, these again, this is just the window, the glass part. We'll be adding the rest of it in a second after this is dry. And they don't have to be straight edges. They can be jagged. You know, rt is really just doesn't have to be perfect. Life is not perfect. Nature is not perfect. Art is not perfect. Just make it be fun. So I'm gonna let that go. I feel like maybe this white spot right here in the center is just a little too white. So my paintbrush is clean and it's mostly dry and I'm just going to come in here and just softly bring it in there. It's still pretty white, but just softened it a little bit. I'm going to come back over here to my red. See, we're just bouncing around. I just kind of depends on the area that you want to work on because you have to pay attention to your paints. Yours is going to dry differently than mine. So maybe yours was ready to go ahead and add in your pinks right away. You should go ahead and do that. You have to pay attention to your painting and add it in when it's ready on yours. Remember, these are just dots that go on top. They're not a specific flower. We're not building we're not painting a draanium or something that's really, really specific. It's just putting in a couple of different reds, a couple of different pinks, All right. Good enough. We'll be adding in some green in a second. I'm not going to put one on the other side. I just want it on the one side. May I get my detail brush back out and add in some edges. I want to define this mantle. See how it's not a straight edge? Doesn't matter. In fact, I'm trying not to make it a straight edge. Trying to make it a little bit jagged, because that's my style. You're going to make yours in your style and what is pleasing to you. I want this to be a little bit darker here. Just because you already put a line there, if you want it darker, go ahead and go over it a second time. Make it darker. Okay. And then what I want to do is add in some of the lines, some of these. Oh, excuse me. I need to add in some of the lines in my um door itself. So using the same small detail brush, I'm going to add in a little line there, and this little line here that kind of goes all the way up. Okay. I want to add in a couple of little lines in here to indicate that that's wood. And then there's lines in there to show that that's a different panel. My paintbrush is just kind of dancing along the top of the paper. I'm not pressing down. I'm almost letting it just kind of dance across the top. You can see I have not dipped back into my paintbrush. I'm just using into my paint. I'm just using what the paint. That's all my paintbrush. Very, very loose. Okay, I think this is ready for some green. So I'm going to grab some of this sage green. I'm going to put allow some green spikes to come out of the tops. And maybe they're dripping down over the edge. And then I go into the middle and I add in some greens into the middle. Sometimes they're bolder, sometimes they're smaller, sometimes they're lines. Maybe I put in a couple of leaves that are kind of, like, pushing out. I'm going to grab some darker green. I do the same thing with a second color green. Remember, this is not a particular flower. We're not making a specific kind. It's just a little pot with some greens and flowers in it. All right. We'll get to the pot in a minute. I'm going to dry this off because I want to do these outlines around the windows, but I can't do that while it's still so wet. So I'm going to dry that off, and then we're going to come in and do the pot and around the window. Okay, I'm going to use my size six, and I'm going to use a little bit of this terra cotta with a little bit of my mustard color. Mix that up so that I have a color for my pot, and my pot is just very, very basic, just kind of like slanted side, flat bottom, slanted side. So I put in some color in here that's bolder and darker, and then I'm going to clean off my paint brush a little bit. Dry it. So now this is basically a dry you know, I wet it. I dry off my paint on my cloth. So it's mostly dry, it's clean, and I'm just going to bring in some of that paint that's already there into the center. You can even leave some white spots to show, um, a little highlight. Then if you want to add in some darker spots, you can add in a little darker accent. Gray little shadow. Very, very straightforward pot. Doesn't have to be fancy. 5. Adding Structure to the Door: Okay. And then I want to do this window, so I'm going to use some of this pink with just touch of this terracotta and gray. We're going to put that around this outside edge. This is the the wood part that holds the glass in. Maybe it's been painted white and it has a little bit of stain coming through. We'll add another layer to that just like we did down in here. When that starts to dry a little bit, we'll add in a little extra just to soften it and make it feel connected. We're going to need to add some ground and we're going to need to add some wall. But I'm just waiting for that. That's not going to take long. I'm just going to pick up some of that gray. You'll notice that I use my palette an awful lot of just whatever is in here. It doesn't have to be brand new fresh paint. It can just be whatever mixes in there. Now that that's starting to dry a little bit, I can come in here and darken it just to make it a little bit more antiqued. I hope you're having fun just playing around and seeing what happens, see what you like, see what you don't like. All right. I'm going to use that same gray color. So I think what I'm going to do is move back over to my size eight, mainly because I like to use a size eight better than my smaller brush. And just kind of mixing it up here, making it to the color that I want. Now, this paint brush, it does have paint on it, but it's more on the dry side. It's not dripping. And I'm going to lay it down kind of perpendicular or, like, along the edge of the paint brush, I'm going to just very gently touch the paint to create kind of like a jagged edge. So let's see. It's almost dry. It's like a dry painting. I'm gonna go around that? I'm just creating a um Like a driveway or a walkway area. I want to make this a little bit darker around that pot. That's good. You can always come back in another time and make it a second color if I need to. Now I want to start working on my wall because this door is not just in space, it needs to have a wall. Now, over here on our drawing, if you wanted to trace out or you wanted to make specific bricks or stonework, you can go right ahead and do that. I'm going to just wing it. I'm going to use my grayer color, and I'm going to make a little spot there, a little spot here, see how I'm just making my bricks or my stonework random. It's stone, but I'm not drawing it out. I'm making it very sketchy. Some are bigger, some are smaller. They're all going the same direction. Now, I space them out so that I can come in with this terracotta color. Mix it in with my gray so that I'm in the same family. Make sure it's not too wet, I'm going to do the same thing. But in the other spots as if this is a different color, brick or stone. Again, some are bigger, some are smaller. Some are next to each other. You can mix them again. Add in some more. Maybe add more gray, maybe make it darker even. I don't know. It's up to you. This is your painting. It doesn't have to go edge to edge. This is just the illusion of a stone wall. My paintbrush is almost dry. You can see that it's almost dry. I almost have to scrub it. I think I want a little bit more definition between my floor and my wall. I'm going to use some kind of a green because maybe there's a little green grass here. Maybe there's even a little bit of green grass in the dirt. I need to use some weed killer in there. Now, I think I might even draw up some grasses this way. Not many, just a little bit. Just to give it some vertical movement. Was that for me? Alexis stop. It doesn't have to be much, just a little bit here and there. That's kind of fun. So I kind of want to come back in here. I still need to do something around this center because it's feeling a little out of place. Just gonna kind of smear this a little bit. This is just a wet brush. No paint on it. Just kind of blending it. Not a lot of water, just a little bit. My paintbrush gets too dry, I'll just dip back in. It just blends it a little bit. Those spots are already dry, so I'm just adding a little water on top, just to soften those edges. Okay, so I want to come back in here with my dark gray. Again, you're going to have to do yours because maybe yours doesn't need this. Just because I'm doing it doesn't mean yours needs it. You need to listen to your painting and do yours the way you need to. You're going to have used different colors. You're going to have painted it differently. So just because I'm doing this doesn't mean you should. You have to listen to your painting. Well, I feel like mine needs a little definition around this edge that is not standing away from the wall enough. So I'm going to just add a little bit of shadow and a little bit of depth. So especially on this side, make it a little bit bolder. Same with that step. Maybe even add a little bit extra shadow on this behind it. Okay. I'm just using a different cream here just to add in some extra color. Okay, kind of fun. Cool. What do you think? Does it need anything? Tell how sketchy it is. Just very casual, has flowers, but you can't really tell what kind of flowers. It's just a pot of beautiful summer flowers with little step going into this barn. Okay. So come back to the next class where we wrap up this project and talk about what's coming up next. 6. Final Details and Finishing Touches: You just finished your piece, and I hope you're starting to feel a little bit more comfortable working with structure while keeping everything loose and relaxed. This one adds a little bit more definition with a door and the surrounding wall, but you can see how it still comes together without needing to control every detail. That balance between structure and softness is something that really develops over time. The more you paint, the easier it becomes to let those two things work together instead of feeling like you have to choose one or the other. You may even notice that your hand feels a little bit more confident now, especially when it comes to placing lines and letting the texture form naturally. If you enjoyed this piece, there's another class where we take this a bit further into a slightly more open scene, adding a little bit more space and atmosphere while still keeping that same loose approach. If today's class was a little challenging, you might enjoy the Window sil class as well. It's a bit more relaxed and focuses on some of the basics, which can really be helpful as you build your confidence. All three classes were designed as a progression. I encourage you to take all three. Each of these paintings stand on their own, but they also work really beautifully together as a set once they're all finished. Each one is a fun way to see your progress build from one piece to the next. I'd really love to see what you created. So if you feel comfortable, please share your painting in the Project Gallery. It's always so encouraging to see how everyone's turns out and it can be really inspiring for other students as well. You should also take a few minutes and look through the other projects from other students. It's a great way to get new ideas and to see different interpretations of the same subject. If you enjoy today's class, you can follow me here so that you get notified when I share a new one. And leaving a quick review really helps other students find these classes, too. Thank you so much for painting with me today. Keep it light, keep it enjoyable, and I hope to see you in another class.