Watercolor Painting: Cafe in Venice

Here is the latest watercolor painting I completed from a Karlyn Holman drawing.



Venice Cafe, 2011

I took a class with Karlyn last year at Art of the Carolinas, and subsequently purchased her book and DVD.  I followed along on the DVD as I painted each step.  This method has really helped me understand various watercolor techniques.

For this painting, we started with painting the cast shadows on dry paper.

Then we wet both sides of the paper and added color, letting it spread beyond the lines.

After that layer dries, you add more color to crisp up various shapes.  I started adding flowers by throwing paint from the brush and letting the colors combine.

To finish, we added a wet wash for the sky, continued to darken some areas such as the shadows, and added mottling to the building on the left by sanding a watercolor pencil over wet paint.  A little color on the figures and dog, and it's done!  There is a ripple in the paper that I will have to flatten out by putting it under some heavy books.

I hate  to waste paint that is left on my palette, so I decided to use it for this month's Sketchbook Challenge journal theme:  Imaginary Animals.  I just painted some blobby animal shapes, and later added features with a black Pitt pen.  This was fun!