Painting Watercolor Cityscapes Series (#4) Step by Step Walkthrough

1. Introduction: Hey, everyone. My name is Rainbow and welcome to my class Painting Watercolor City scapes. This is the fourth class in our series where in each class, we explore the step by step process of one specific cityscape painting. We go all the way from sketching, looking at the reference photo, planning, and transforming that into our composition, and then we paint layer by layer until we have our final piece. The focus of this class is to give you insight to the process of this specific cityscape painting. The painting that we're going to look at today is a night city scape, and this is a little more advanced, so it does require some experience in watercolor. In some of my other classes of this series, we've explored other city scapes. If you want to start out with something a little simpler to warm up, I recommend walking through those classes first or here are some of my other beginner friendly classes as well. Okay. So back to this class. By the end of this class, you will be able to paint this painting here. I will go through each and every step slowly and clearly so you can follow along. Hopefully, throughout this series, you will be able to accumulate a wealth of examples and that it will equip you into painting city scapes on your own. I know that they are especially less watercolor classes on painting night city scapes. Hopefully, this will give you a bit of a hand in understanding how to do that. It's great to have you here. Let's get started with our class, and I'll see you there. M 2. Materials, Tools & Supplies: So before we get started, we are going to go through the materials, tools, and supplies that we will need for this painting. Let's get started. First, we will need some paper, some watercolor paper. The ones that I'm using here is 300 GSM. It's rough or you can also use cold pressed. I find that the rough surface works better for city scapes compared to smoother surfaces. And here I'm also using a watercolor block. So it's a bunch of watercolor paper stacked into one, and it's a bit more convenient, but you can also use loose sheets. Next, we also have watercolor brushes, and here I have a variety of flat and round brushes. The big flat brush is great for background, and we can utilize the square shape to create straight lines and structure strokes later. Then we also have a small round brush. This is used for the details. It's a bit smaller, so it's easier to control. You can have a variety of those based on your own preferences. And other than that, we're also going to need a cheap brush. And we're going to use this for applying our masking fluid. And the reason that we want to use a cheap brush is because when you apply the masking fluid, it's sometimes just difficult to wash off and we wouldn't want that to ruin our favorite brush. This brings us to our next item, which is the masking fluid. The masking fluid is this liquid that dries into this rubbery texture, and we're going to use this to mask some of the light areas in our painting. Moving on, we're also going to need some watercolor paints. And this is my palette here. You can see that I have a variety of colors that I personally use are my preferences. But specifically for this painting, we are going to be using these following colors. This includes opera, which is a bright pink color, and then quinacridone gold, which is a yellow, and then ultramarine deep, a blue, rinocdon scarlet, a dark red, and burnt umber, which is a brown color. And here I have some alternatives. You don't need to use my exact colors. You can always experiment and work with what you have. Here, I have a combination of both very bright colors, especially for the light areas of the painting later, as well as some dark colors for the shades and the darker parts. Moving on, we're also going to need pencil and eraser for sketching, of course. You also want to have a palette to mix your paints. And then we'll need water, a towel and also masking tape. This is optional, but I'm going to use this to tape the edge of the painting so that it leaves a very nice white border that frames our painting. And last but not least, we're going to need a spray bottle. We're just going to put some water in to spray and to blend some of the colors in while we're painting. But I'll explain this more in the process when we're actually doing it. So that's it for the materials tool supplies that we will need, and we will move on to the next step in our next video. 3. Overview of Process: So before we start the actual painting process, I'm going to go over a bit of the different steps that we will take in this process. This is just to give you a bit of an overview of big picture of what is going on and so that we know each and every step of what we're going to be doing. First, we're going to begin by the sketch and making the sketch. In this part, we're going to mark out the important elements. A lot of the things that we've talked about in the planning stage. We're also going to be adding the masking fluid in this stage and then taping our edges, getting it ready for painting. After that, for the painting process, it's going to split into five parts. In the first in the first layer, we're going to paint the lights. This is a very light layer where we're going to add some color to the lighter bits of the composition. And then in the second layer, we're going to add the shadows, the overall shadows and the darks of the composition, and we're also going to remove the masking fluid at this stage. So very early on. After that, in the third layer, we're going to start by adding some more details and work on that transition between the light and the darks, so we're blending those colors together. In the fourth layer, we're going to add on the surrounding areas of darks. Since in the previous layer, we've worked on the lighter parts and we've worked on the details. We want to bring that together and look at the overall layer and overall colors. Where are the darks and where are the lights. Then in our final layer in layer five, we're going to add some finishing touches here and there, a lot of the final bits of our painting. This is the entire process of our painting, and, let's get started. I hope that you will enjoy this class. H. 4. Planning the Composition: So before getting started with the actual painting process? Let's do a bit of planning and to think about how we want our composition to be? Let's look at our reference photo here. And at first glance, it looks like there is a lot going on. It's quite complicated with the street scene, a lot of signs, lights and cars everywhere. Our goal here is to simplify it. We're going to identify what are the important elements? What are the parts that we want to abstract? What are the parts that we want to keep? So first, we want to look at the values. This is one of the most important things in painting well and it's getting the values right. So the values refer to how light or dark a color is. And if we were to apply this to the composition, we can see this by quickly turning this photo into black and white. We can identify that the light colors are mainly gathered in the middle. Whereas the darker colors are more towards the side. When we paint this, we want to emphasize on this contrast as well. This is much more obvious when we turn the photo into black and white. You can see that if we turn it back into color, it's less obvious, but the values and these rules still stay the same. It's a good trick to just for us to visualize and identify them easily. Now we know that this is what we want to emphasize on. The next thing that we want to focus on is the consideration of the focal point and the important elements that we want to keep. So, for example, looking at the perspective lines of the street scene here, you can see that the structures naturally draw our eyes inwards towards the middle into this car and this motorcycle here. You can see that the cars on the side are much less in focus. This is going to help us to decide that, oh, maybe the elements of the side can be abstracted a bit more. We don't need to add too much details. Whereas we're going to focus on and add more details towards the car in the middle and the motorcycle in the middle as well. Same with the lights in the neon street signs, we can identify these important structures, the prominent lines and shapes like this. Okay. And by identifying this, we can then weave out and abstract the rest. And another consideration in our planning is the color seam. So there's a lot of freedom in what you can do with the colors. You could make it very colorful using an assortment of different colors just as it is in the reference photo. You can see that this is a very bright and colorful seam. You could also choose to keep it monotone. I've done this with some other paintings, so you could use just mainly one color and focus on making certain parts brighter, other parts darker and creating that contrast, but focus on just one color. Or you could also experiment with the color temperature. You can notice that in the middle of the composition, the lighter parts actually have more reds and yellow. It's a bit more warmer in tone. Whereas if we were to look up towards the sky, the colors are much cooler and you have some blues and purples. So you can see that there is a contrast in the color temperature, and this is definitely something that we can consider when we choose our color scheme. So just to let you see how these aspects of planning can really be applied to the actual painting. Here is a comparison between the reference photo and the final product, the painting of this class. Here we have considered the values, emphasizing on which parts are lighter, which parts are darker. We have simplified some elements, focused on these parts in the middle. Was the parts on the edges are abstracted. We follow the perspective lines to enhance the structure of the composition. And we've also considered the color temperature where it's a bit warmer in the middle and cooler towards the sides. And so in the following sections of this class, we're going to walk through step by step of this painting process. So feel free to change things up to experiment with the different design decisions. This is your painting, and this is your chance to practice and develop what works for you and what is your working painting style. 5. Sketching: So here we're going to start the sketching part and we want to have our reference photo on the side ready so that we can refer to it. With our pencil, we're going to start by marking out the vanishing point. And from the vanishing point, we're going to draw out the perspective lines. Just as we have identified it in the previous video for planning. You want to draw these lines in this way so that you will have markers for you to refer to later on. And then we're going to move on to drawing the vertical lines. These lines will mark out the basic building structure and where the building placements are. Moving on from the lines, we're going to draw the horizontal lines. So this is mainly the neon signs in the middle. And once we have the vertical and the horizontal lines, we're going to connect the two together. So we're going to connect it with the perspective lines, the ones that are diagonal. And this will give us a bit more detail towards the structure of the building that we see. So do that for both sides. Afterwards, we're going to move downwards in our composition and sketch the car in front. So think of this as modified square. I personally like to exaggerate the real lights, and this will give it a bit more of a character to the aesthetic of the car. Then we're going to do the same with the motorcycle, sketch out the shape very roughly and also add the light. After that, we're going to move to the cars on the side. With this one, think of it as a modified cube. Follow the perspective lines that you have sketched out previously. And same with the other side, layering the squares together. You can keep this simple. It doesn't have to have too much detail or just marking out the placements in the shapes. And you also want to mark out the wheels and add some shadows on the floor because this will help with identifying the depth and the structure of the different cars and their placements within the composition. And after that, we're also going to mark out the little lights. You can draw little circles. This is going to help us when we apply the masking fluid so that we know exactly where to mark them. We can add any final finishing touches anywhere that we think need more detail for our sketch. Once we are done with that, we can move on to using the masking fluid to mask out some of the lights in our composition. So get a cheap brush and dip it in with the masking fluid and apply it on the little circles that you have just drawn. And once you are satisfied with the masking that you have done, we're going to wait for this to dry. Make sure that this is dry first or else it will smudge everywhere. And then we're going to tape the edges of our paper, so it creates a nice framing edge. And that's it for the sketching part and in the next video, we are going to finally start painting. So I'll see you there. B. 6. Painting the lights: So in this video, we are going to finally start the painting process. With this first layer, we're going to want to keep it light. We're going to mainly start by adding some color to the light bits and the glowy bits of the painting. We will have plenty of time to add darker bits later in the next few videos. So we're going to start by adding some water to our brush. We're going to brush this onto the brightest areas and places on our paper. Places that are near the masking fluid that we've done in the last video. The reason that we want to brush some water first is so that it will blend and make the colors a bit softer when we add the actual paint in. After that, we're going to get some colors, going to get the bright pink, and lightly brush that onto a few of the parts that we've just std. And then we're also going to get some yellow. Mix this sin with the pink so that you get a bit of a bright orange and then we're going to do the same thing. Brush over some of the lighter areas in places where the lights are going to be. You can also play around with the colors a bit. You can use other bright colors. It doesn't have to be the oranges and the pinks. After that, we're going to extend this outwards. As you do that, going to start by mixing a thicker consistency of the paint, use the same colors and go over the areas that you've gone before. But this time, we're going to mix the colors with a bit less water. Here we're creating some depth and variation. You can see that some parts have very light pink while other parts are more prominent. And then we're going to extend this to the rest of our composition. So we want to cover the whole painting in one layer so that there aren't any dried edges in the middle or in places that shouldn't be. For the outer part of the composition, we're going to mix a purple color. Here I'm using an ultramarine blue with burnt umber, so a blue and a brown and I'm mixing that with some of the orange color that we have used before. Okay. And we're going to start by painting the sky as well as any other area that is still blank on the paper. So it's okay if this is still pretty light. We will add it to be in the later stages, but we just want to cover the whole paper so that we don't have any unwanted edges. And since we are using this large flat brush, we also want to try to leave some gaps in the middle while we're painting the vertical strokes. So this is going to help us give some preliminary structure to our buildings in the composition. And to finish off for this layer, I'm going to go back with the orange color that we mixed before. To add a bit of a few spots here and there to further add on to the depth of the painting. And that's it for our first layer. So as you can see, I kept the middle fairly light, and you can already begin to see that glowing aesthetic to the painting. We want to wait for this layer to dry completely dry before we move on to the second layer in the next video. D. 7. Painting the Darks: Once the first layer has dried, we can move on. In this part, we're going to start by adding some darks and defining those structures, and at the end of this layer, we're also going to remove the masking fluid. Similar to the last layer, we're going to mix a dark purple color. So you're going to use an ultramarine and burnt umber, which is a brown and a blue, and then mix that with the pink and the yellow orange color that we had before. But this time, you're going to mix in a little less water so that the color is darker and easier to control. We're going to use this to paint the building silhouettes. So you're going to use a large flat brush and paint the buildings on top. Notice with the reference photo, the buildings are much darker than the sky and it sits between the light in the middle and the sky on top. It creates a bit of a separation in the values in this composition, and it further enhances the contrast with the lights glowing in the middle. You're going to align your strokes in the perspective lines of this painting. This will help to paint a bit of the details in the structure and the shape of the building. And then once you get towards the middle, we're going to use a spray bottle. We're going to spray a bit of water towards the edge of the darks. This is going to blend and help fade the colors so that it doesn't a edge. And then we're going to continue and repeat this step on the other side, the other parts of the building. You want to take advantage of the flat edge of this brush to create those straight lines. It's going to help you create those details in a much simpler way. And then slowly, we're going to move downwards and begin to block out some of the car structures. So just focus on the overall silhouette shape of the car. You can add some shadows to the floor as well. And while this layer is still wet, we're going to switch brushes. You're going to mix some of the orange color as we have used before. And we're going to add it to various spots in the darks and shadows. So add this to the rear lights to the car in the middle and to the motorcycle, as well as some line details in the buildings. The orange color will create a transition between the bright colors in the middle, as well as the dark structures on the side. Now, I'm going to add a bit more detailing to the cars and the shadows on the floor before leaving this layer to dry. And to finish this layer off, we are going to remove the masking fluid. So make sure that this layer has dried already. Or else when we remove the masking fluid, it's going to smudge the paint. So after the surface has dried, you're going to remove the masking fluid with an eraser or you could rub it off with your finger as well. And after that, we are going to continue this painting in the next section of the class. 8. Adding Details: So once we have removed the masking fluid in the previous layer, we can now see our composition much clearer and we can see the parts that are really glowing with the light. So in this section, we're going to continue to add details to our composition, especially the lines and the details of the windows on the building, as well as some lights in the middle. And we're going to continue to work on blending and building on that transition between the light in the middle and the dark in the surrounding composition. Okay. So we are going to take our orange color again that we've mixed with our pink and yellow. Using the small round brush, we're going to start in the middle and add some horizontal lines horizontal strokes in between the whites. So we're going to add these strokes next to the whites that we have just removed revealed from the masking fluid. You can keep this abstract and use both strokes and dots. We're going to again extend this upwards. After you are satisfied with the details, you're going to wash your brush. You're going to switch colors to the darker purple and then repeat this process. This time, you can focus a bit more on the upper part of the composition, less on the lights and the orange towards the middle, but rather extend this upwards to the buildings. Okay. And you can refer back to the perspective lines that you've drawn in the very beginning to find the right diagonal angles when you are drawing those sides of the buildings. M. After that, we're going to add some darker shadows to the foreground. You can start with the car and the motorcycle in front. So here I specifically darken the left side of the car so that it separates the structure and the two objects. So the car and the motorcycle. You also want to do the same with the rest of the vehicles on the right, as well as darkening the shadows on the ground. And you can see that as I'm adding darker parts. I'm not covering the entirety of the shadows that are there, but I'm layering and adding bits that are much darker so that there is depth and you can see different levels of darks. So now we will wait for it to dry. And then in the next layer, we're going to zoom out and focus on adding darks to the larger area of the composition. So in this layer, we focus more on the details, the lines, and in the next layer, going to focus on the overall. 9. Creating Contrast with Shadows: So this will be a short and simple section. As you can see, with our painting, it's really coming together, and even if you were to end it here, it would already more or less look complete. But one of the things that we've talked about since the beginning is the importance of values and getting those dark parts and the light parts light. And this is how the composition will really come together. So at this stage, we have enough light elements in the middle. But we're going to enhance this by darkening the surrounding areas and towards the edges. So I'm going to take a large flat brush and using that same dark purple. This time, making it a little bit more watery. We're going to brush this along the sides. You can use the spray bottle to blend in the edges just as we've done before. Fairly simple. And while the layer is still wet, I'm going to scratch the surface like this with my fingernail and create these lines. So this is similar to the details that we have painted before, except instead of the lines being darker than the background, the lines here are much lighter, they're lighter than the background instead. You can also add these lines on the floor where the shadows are to create some depth for us to really see the space in the different objects Once you are satisfied with the amount of lights and darks in the composition, you think that it's more or less enough with the contrast. We're going to wait for this layer to dry again. Then with the next video, we will do any of the last finishing touches to complete our painting together. Oh Baby. 10. Finishing Touches: Okay, So this is our last section, and we'll just be adding some finishing touches. It'll be short and sweet. So with the small round brush, you're going to mix some red, orange color and lightly brush and paint around the white rear lights in the car in the middle. You're also going to do the same with the light on the motorcycle. And then wash your brush and blend the red and the orange into the white by washing the edge a bit. And this is going to help the light look a bit more natural. And since the rear light is supposed to be red, it's going to make it a bit more realistic as well, rather than just being a white spot. And then with the same color, you can also add a bit more details in the surrounding area just as we did before, so you can add some dots, some strokes. You'll notice that this is a step that we are doing over and over within the different layers in the different stages, and it's really a process of refining the details. Again, after using the orange color, we're going to do the same with the darker color. Add any more finishing touches until you feel that it is more or less enough. Sometimes how much detail that you would like to add is a personal preference, sometimes comes with experience as well, and what works, what you like. So once you have enough details and that you are satisfied with it, going to let this dry, and then you can remove the masking tape, and there you have it. So that is your finished painting. Well done. 11. Sharing Your Work: Thank you so much for taking this class. I hope that you enjoyed it. Now it is your turn. We all know that the best way to learn is by doing and to practice it hands on. Definitely try this at home and in your own time. Feel free to share your work in the project section below. I have also attached the reference photo so you can download it and use it for your painting. You can also tag me on Instagram and connect with me there. I'd love to see your work. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and I'm really happy to help with anything. If you like this class, I also have a few other classes in this series. It's in a similar format exploring different city scapes, as well as some other content like painting a sunset or painting figures. Well, that's it for today. Thank you for taking this class and I hope to see you in the next one. Bye.