Watercolor Cityscape: Paint a Venetian Sunset and Water Reflections

1. Intro: Are you ready to capture the magic of a sunset in the city with watercolor. Join this class and learn how to paint a beautiful cityscape at sunset. Hi. My name is Alexandrina, and I'm a watercolor artist with over ten years of painting practice. I invite you to explore this beautiful world of watercolor with me. We will start with color mixing and main art materials. Then you will learn about color value studies and how it can help you to improve your final painting. Finally, we will dissolve in the painting process where I describe and explain every step. Don't worry if you are in tube watercolors. This class is designed for all skill levels with simple instructions to make sure you succeed. However, a basic experience with watercolor will be very helpful. As a class project, you will paint a staring watercolor Cityscape of venous at sunset. Please don't forget to submit your painting to the class project section and lever review. It will help me to improve my future classes and for other students to understand if this class is a good fit for them. Ready to start, grab your brushes, and I hope to see you in the class. 2. Color Mixes: Hello, and welcome to the class. Let's start with art materials we will use for this painting. You can also find the list of materials in the attachments to this class. I will use some primary colors, ultramarine blue, cadmium orange deep, and alizarin crimson. If you don't have the orange color, you can easily mix alizarin crimson with yellow color, which I also will use in this painting. The pure orange from the tube is more bright. That's why I decided to use three colors instead of mixing red and yellow. We will also need some dark color to make the darkest mixes for the buildings and silhouettes of the gondola, for example. I will use neutral tint in this painting, but if you have, for example, paints gray, which I normally use, I decided this time to try new dark color. Neutral tint is also good for this purpose. But if you have pints gray, for example, it's also good. Now let's see the mixes that I will use for this painting. For the sky, I will use cadmium orange deep, lysern crimson and orlene altogether in different proportions. One of the mixes I like to use for painting the water and dark areas of the sky or dark clouds, it's ultramarine and cadmium orange deep. By the way, if you don't have ultramarine, you can use, for example, Tsin blue or Brucian blue, some blue color that you have. Now I mix in pretty dark intense mix of ultramarine and cadmium orange deep. You see that it's pretty dark gray color. I also add some laserin crimson to make this mix more purple and to bring more color. Basically, you can use this mix and we will use it for painting the buildings on the background. Of course, we have neutral tint, but it's very important that we use different shades and not just one color from the tube because we need to make a diverse painting diverse colors in our background. Mixes of ultramarine and serine crimson and cadmium orange deep, we will use also for painting the water. And also for the background, for the buildings, I will use mix of neutral tint and orange and a little bit of a sarin crimson, and I will just use different proportions of these colors to create more warm or more dark color depending on which area I will apply it. Also, we will need a maskinquid, and a few watercolors that will help me to create the accents and highlights in the end. I'm using mint, lavender, engine brilliant number two. You can use just zinc white or white guash, if you have it. And also if you don't have mask liquid, you can replace it with white guash. And to add this white accents in the end of the painting on top of your watercolor layer. I like to use the andamin gn Brill number two to also create diversity in these little dots and highlights in the end. These colors are definitely not essential. If you don't have a door worry, you can just use white color. That's it for the colors. As for the brushes, I will use three brushes, more brush number eight. Synthetic round brush do zero and round brush number six by silver brush. Painting landscapes, I always use 100% cotton paper by arches, 300 GM or 140 pounds called press. It has this specific watercolor texture that helps to create amazing paintings. Get your materials ready, and I will see you in the next lesson. 3. Sketch: Let's start with a sketch. First, I will draw a horizontal line that separates the background and buildings and the water. This line should be always lower or upper than the middle of the paper. Basically, here, I'm measuring the units that I see on the reference, and I am transferring the measurements into the paper. This called sighting method, and it helps you to measure proportions angles and distances of an object you are going to paint, just using a pencil or straight tool at arm's length. Now I'm trying to measure how many heights of the building, how many units are in the heights of the buildings and in the width of a building. I don't always use this method, but sometimes when you are not sure about the measurements of different objects in your sketch, you can just use this method and create realistic measurements on paper. Now moving from the top to the bottom, I will try to repeat the shape of the building of silhouettes of the buildings that I see on the reference photo. You can find a simplified sketch that I attached to this class in the resources. If you don't want to waste your time on drawing a sketch. We will not go into the details when we will paint these background buildings. And now I'm sketching some windows, some shapes, lines, et cetera. But it's not necessary because we won't paint detailed ones. We will add some darker areas representing the windows, and maybe we will keep some light areas. For example, these two windows, I want to keep them light. So just try to sketch some main objects and take a look at the During the both object practice in drawing round shapes, you can just use some round object and trace it. Also, I don't really like how the condole turned out in terms of shape. So I also compared the gondola to the roof of the tallest building, and I actually fixed it. So in my current sketch, it's a bit smaller than it will end up in the painting. In the dodable file that you can find, it will be the exact size that I have on the final painting. I'm using needable eraser to remove some strong pencil lines before we will start painting and also we need one thing to do. I'm using masking liquid to cover the area of the sun and also reflections from the sun on the water. Basically, you can use white ash in the end of the painting if you don't have mask liquid, and you can just paint this white sun on top of your watercolor layers. But I prefer to not use white ash in these cases because it looks more pure and more beautiful in my opinion. If you have Muscular liquid, this is time to cover the sun and the reflections on water. I'm creating these little dots and lines on the water trying to keep a different shape and area between them to make them more diverse. Once I applied all the masking liquid, I wanted. I will let it dry, and I will see you in the next lesson where we will start painting with water. 4. Color Value Study: Before we start painting with watercolor, I want to show you some exercise that will help you to paint landscapes easier. So I will do a color value study. This means that I prepared a smaller sketch of the same painting I'm going to create. And I'm using just one color like paints gray. Normally it just black and white. So you wouldn't be distracted by different colors. This exercise will help us to understand which areas are light and which areas are dark and to compare different objects to each other. So I start by covering the whole area of the sky with just light gray color. Again, I'm using just one color, paints gray and water, and I'm controlling different proportions of water and color, pigment to water ratio to create different intensity of the color. To see the color values on the reference, photo, you need to narrow your eyes, or you can just make a reference photo black and white. But if you paint from the real scene, from the C, for example, on plane air, you can just narrow your eyes and to analyze which areas are darker and which areas seem to be lighter. So I see that the sky will be the lightest area of the painting, then we'll go the water. Then we'll go the buildings on the background, and the darkest area will be the salute of gondola and Gondola. So also, for example, in the water, we have this reflection from the sun. So this area will be also lighter than the left side of the water. And now I'm trying to find this color value that I need. And it will help me to see if my understanding of color values on the reference photo is correct. Before I move to paint the buildings on the background, I need to wait until the paper will get dry. I'm checking with my fingers and it's still wet, so I'm preparing a darker color mix by just adding more color to the bottle that already have on the palette. I will start from the very top of the building and I will move to the bottom. I can do the whole sketch with one brush, my mob brush number eight, because it has a point end, and it allows me to paint even smaller lines and details. But of course, when we move to the main painting, I can switch to a smaller brush, whichever will be more convenient for me, and also for you to try to choose the brush that you are more comfortable with. But try to not pick a very small brush because we still need to have some color and water on the belly of the brush, so you could paint fast. I'm also picking up my drawing board to create this angle, so the color would travel from the top to the bottom. I don't want to go too much into the details. I just sketched some windows, and I see that this building on the right side is slightly darker than the building on the left side. So I'm trying to make this area. And also this area at the bottom where the building will connect to the water. This edge will be than the top of the building. Now, I will add some brush strokes to the area of the water. Keeping in mind that there is a light area where the reflection from the sun is, and also the area right below the buildings. On the edge of the buildings and water, this area of the water will be also. Using a very dark color, I will also paint a silhouette of the Gondeler and Gondola. Now, I will remove the masking liquid that hopefully fly dried from the surface of the paper using the other side of my brush. You can also use fingers or any object basically. As you might notice on this sketch, I didn't apply the skin liquid on the surface of the water representing the reflections from the sun. So I will show you how to use a white quash or zinc white to paint the reflections if you don't have the skin liquid. And actually, the sun, you can also paint with zinc white on this step. If you haven't covered it with skin liquid, now, you would paint a round shape in the sky and these little dots and brush strokes in the water. I also add some little dots and reflections on the gondolier and on the dark area of the buildings. I will switch to the black color to paint some sills in the sky. So in this lesson, you can see all the steps we are going to follow when we are painting our main class project. I recommend you also to try and make color value study or even color study where you will sketch a smaller size of the same painting. Try in the color mixes, brush strokes, and to see where the main challenges are. I will see you in the next lesson, where we will start painting with watercolor. 5. Sky: The mask liquid got fully dry and now we can paint with water color. I will start by painting the sky and first, we will cover the whole surface with a clean water. We will work in wet on wet tie. This technique I usually use when I paint sky or water. Masking liquid that I applied here allows me to not worry about this area and just paint it over, and then remove this circle and to have a white area of uncovered by color paper. Now, when the paper is fully wet, the temperature in your room, the faster paper will get. During summer, you have to work very fast. And I will start with this very bright orange color on the top. I take just pure orange and I apply at the top of the painting. Also, I can hold my board like this, the color will travel from top to the bottom. Also, I can add a little bit of blue shade because normally at the top, the color will be not so orange and will have a little bit of blue shade. Now we have here a very light yellow area. So I'm just using line here, and also I make sure that my orange color is very bright because we have a sunset and it is very bright. Now I will add a little bit of alizarin crimson to orange to have a bit more pinkish color. And here I will apply this pinkish shade. This is the first layer of the sky. I will let ale bit, and I will move to the first layer of the water. 6. Water : Now we will move to paint in the water. And just like with the first step, I will cover this area with a clean water first. Here, we will have a pretty light orange reflection from the sky, from the sun, actually, here we will leave it more bright. Now I will start with mix of blue and orange and a little bit of alizarin crimson. And here, I will just make a very bright orange color. I'm mixing until it will be muted blue color. Once I mix blue and orange, it creates gray shade and I need to add a little bit more blue to make this shade more like a color of the water. If you don't have this color, you just need to continue mixing. And actually, I probably will wait a little bit. Here, my water came to the background area and it's not very bad because the background will be darker than the water. Basically, right now, I'm not worried about it. I just need to create This wavy shapes on the water. Also we have here on the right side, some darker color. The main thing is that we keep this orange reflection from the sun, mainly where our musky liquid is and where will be the lightest area of the water. We keep it orange. I'm trying to avoid painting a lot of right there. I can wait a little bit longer. Here we have a gondola and we will paint it very dark once we will finish the first layers. Actually, it will be one of the final details. I'm mixing this color. Like orange and blue and a little bit of alizarin crimson just like a sad. If you see that the color is too purple, you add more blue. If you see that it's too gray, you also add more blue. If it's too blue, you add more orange and alizarin crimson. Make sure that you don't use too much water because the be like maybe coffee consistency. If you know three consistencies of water color, tea, coffee, and butter. This should be like coffee probably. So medium consistency. You can see that paper almost dry. Now the strokes that I will make, they will be first, they can be lighten. That's why I have a paper towel to remove some excess water. The strokes will not travel that much, like in the previous stage. When we are painting the waves, we need to not let these rough edges. So now I'm trying to remove color from the paper brush and just lifting the from the surface. Our main task is to make the left area, the left side darker in terms of water, but not to make it too dark because the darkest part will be still the building. Somewhere I add the strokes even on this orange area. Painting the water and the waves is always quite challenging. I have some other classes where I paint C and waves, and I share some exercises that can help you to practice more in painting waves and C. You can check it out. Here is actually a bit different scenario because it's not the s and not big waves, but I follow some similar steps here, painting some of the waves to represent the water. Okay, I think that we can leave it like that and move to the next lesson where we will be the buildings. 7. Buildings - Part 1: A. Let's start painting the buildings. I will use neutral tint and I will mix it with the colors I have on the palette with ultramarine blue, orange and a lizarn crimson. I need to create some diversity in the colors in the background. That's why I will use different proportions of the colors. For example, for the roof, I will use more blue color in the mix, and for the bottom part and the buildings on the right side, I will add more orange to create a warmer shade. I switched to my round brush number six, and I will start from the very top of the building. You can find a list of all the materials I use in this tutorial in the resources of this class and also links to these materials. I usually order them from the Jackson's Supply. I'm just covering the area. Gradually moving from the top to the bottom. I can add somewhere and bit more and blue. I'm trying to make some somewhere lighter just to make sure that the color looks different. Also, we have here some windows or something like that. I'm trying to avoid these areas when I'm painting and some things on the roof. Okay. I hope that you can see properly the things I'm working on right now. So now I will just cover this round roof. While the sun is just killing me because it's very sunny and it actually very hard to record the classes when it's so sunny outside. Now I will definitely switch to the mo brush because it's more convenient to work in the bigger areas with a bigger brush. Oh. Will add a little bit of color on the left side because we have sun on the right. It means that light comes from the right side, so the left one will be a bit darker. Here I will just leave this orange area between these two pieces. I don't know why, but I like it. And I will move slowly. Something like this. We also have here some windows. Now I'm just trying to repeat the silete of the buildings. Also we have here dark building on the left. This is just a small area, but it will help us to to create this frame of the contrast to highlight this edge on the left side. We remember that I can add windows here. In general, the round shape of the building Something like that will help the eye catch the dimension of this building. Now I will add a little bit more orange into this mix, creating more grayish like commuted shade. Here, I will avoid painting this window, and here as well. Somewhere here, we also have one window. As I move closer to them, I will make my mix warm, so I add orange into the mix on the palette. Basically, it will help me to create the diversity of the background color between the cold shade of the roof, where I had more blue and warmer shade of the buildings. These silhouettes on the rooftops are pretty dark, most black. I'm using my mix of neutral and the colors on the palette. I'm just trying to the siltes Here. Oh. Okay, now here these buildings on the right side. They will be a bit warmer. So I'm using mix of more orange and ser con. And I'm just moving the color to make differents. And also just silts of the rooftops. I can also can add some details on the roofs. And here I left some unpainted area just to create this light area. 8. Buildings - Part 2: Here on the left side, we have some light buildings. I will remove some color here. Maybe also some color here. Maybe I will add some darker color. For sure, we will darken this area at the very bottom of the buildings. While I have this dark color on my brush, I will also add a little bit of details to the windows in the upper part. And I can also add some dark area while the surface is still wet. So the main principle of painting these buildings on the background is to keep all the area quite wet. So you don't let the color to dry fully. And you come back from one area to another, always adding something. Now I can switch to my brush number six, just to make some smaller windows. Just to imply some details on these buildings. Also here, we have some windows as well. I can paint again with these colors that I have on the palette. A C. Now it's time to add just a little bit more details. But without too detailed Maybe I will just add a little bit. So windows here. Maybe some brush stroke. It shouldn't even be precise detail of the building. It just something that creates this feeling that in the shadows, there different objects. Here we have stairs, so we can make these lines just to show the viewer that there are columns and some stairs. Okay. What else? Here, also, we have some pretty interesting window that I can make. Maybe something here. But be careful if the area is like here, I see that it's too dark. Maybe I will also add some lines here because there is a balcony or something like that. I can add little lines. And here closer to the water we have some Maybe some doors, maybe some stairs. Also some some of these elements. Oh. I think that's enough because I don't want to overcomplicate it. I want to keep it simple, and I think I'm done now, and we can move to the next lesson where we will remove the liquid from the paper. 9. Remove Masking Liquid: I took a look at the sketches that I prepared, the color value sketch and the colored sketch. I see that this area of the building should be darker than the water. Here with this column, I don't like the depth of this area, so I will cover it with the second layer. I'm mixing colors I mentioned before, the blue neutral tinned orange and a little bit of zarine crimson trying to make not too dark color and very neutral. I want you to keep in mind that even though this second layer is dark, it still should be quite transparent. So I'm lifting the color on the surface, and I'm using this consistency that I can still see the shapes I drew painted underneath in the first layer. So it's just like a filter on the photo that creates some shade. And also, I can use somewhere dry brush strokes just to combine all the shapes and create some texture. I think this is better because the background became one piece and it doesn't distract us from the foreground and the water, which I will paint very soon. Now it's time to remove the liquid. I'm using the other side of the brush and very carefully, I remove this plume. Seeing from the paper. I removed the maskin liquid, and now I have this white circle, just like on the reference photo. The sunset sun is just white, and in water color normally, the white of the paper represents the white color. That's why I prefer to use maskin liquid instead of painting with zinc white or white. Now I will remove the maskin liquid from the surface of water, and I'll see you in the next lesson. 10. Gondola and Waves: Moved all the mask in liquid, and now it's time to paint gondola and condoler. I'm mixing some pretty dark color using neutral tint and ultramarine, and I will just paint the silhouette of the candola and people on it. Inside, we have some people, so I will also paint their salutes very simply, like I'm just painting the heat and the shoulders. Also I will paint a god with just neutral tint color and also very simple shape. And this. Okay. And also some reflections on the water. Like, for example, under the boat, For painting the waves, I use color mix I have on the palette with a little bit of everything, ultramarine, lazarn, crimson, orange, and neutral tint. You have to use this neutral close to blue color, but it's still not pure blue. And make sure that it's not too dark. For example, here, I see that it's dark color, so I need to add a little bit more water to the mix. I will do it right now. And I will paint the waves. Also, the water looks right next to the buildings because it also has their reflections, so I will pain the darker areas closer to the buildings. Like that. I think that I can just leave the water like this. I added some brush strokes, maybe a little bit darker areas. Here, to highlight the reflection from the sun. And that's it. Now, we have only some little details left. For example, here, I want to add some birds, probably seagulls. I'm just mixing a neutral tint on the pallet. And Almost without any sketch. I will just add a bird here and just a simple shape here. Maybe if you don't feel very confident about painting the birds, you can sketch them first. I will add some little ones here. Maybe also a little bit on the rooftops. Like like this and maybe something here. Okay. And also, I will take some lavender and light colors to make some details on the background buildings. 11. Final Details: Now let's add some final details. I will use La vender engine brilliant number two. You can use just. I will use my double zero. You can also pick some very small brush, and I'm just creating these random dots and strokes in different places. I. I will add some of these little light dots on the head and shoulders of Gondoler, to separate him from the dark building on the background. And these little dots and strokes, they help our cityscape look more interesting with details, implying some windows people and some objects in the background that are reflecting the sunlight. Oh. Somewhere I can use dry on dry technique using dry brush with a color and creating the textured brush strokes. The main thing is to not overdo it. And if I see that I don't like areas or some brush strokes, I can remove them from the surface a paper towel, for example. Also, I can create some dark strokes to create this diversity between the light areas and dark areas because our background is b, it's dark, but it's not black, and it's not all the same. So we can create some dark details also. M C Also, I decided to add some dark lines on the roof of this building to repeat and highlight the shape of the roof. That is not flat and it has dimension. Our painting is done, and now it's time to remove the masking tape and to see our final result. Please don't forget to share your painting in the class project section. Also, if you decide to share your painting on Instagram, don't forget to tag my account. I hope that you like the painting process and this class also review. And try to be patient with watercolor because it takes time and a lot of practice, and even though I created the colored sketch first and colored value study, I didn't like the first painting. I created. I will show you and I decided to give it another try and I like my second painting much more. You can see the difference that mostly in the color value and color intensity of the buildings, too many details and something like that. So if you don't like the result from the first time, don't give up, don't get too upset. It just takes time. If you like painting with watercolor, you can join my other classes and learn how to paint seascapes, botanical illustrations, cityscapes, landscapes, and animals. I hope to see you in my other classes, and I can't wait to see your class projects.