Free Watercolor Lessons & Techniques
"Third and Santa Fe"
By Ronnie Cramer
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Reference Photo
For this demonstration, I decided to paint a tavern located
on Santa Fe Drive in Denver. The last time I passed by, the
late-day sun was casting some interesting shadows on the building
so I snapped this picture. It's a low-resolution digital photo
shot with an inexpensive Largan Chameleon camera. The Chameleon
is very small and therefore quite handy to carry around all
the time.
NOTE: Since I originally wrote up this demo, I've gotten a SiPix camera, which is even smaller and cheaper. The photo quality is about the same.
Initial Drawing
I started out by sketching the basic layout with a 6B Mars
Lumograph pencil. Besides slightly altering the angle and
the composition, I decided to leave out a few wires and other
distractions and make the crosswalk lines in the foreground
more prominent.
First Colors
The first paint on the surface was a wash of Cadmium Yellow
over the building and most of the other light-toned areas.
After it dried I added a little Payne's Gray here and there,
then a dab or two of very thin Mars Brown, and finally some
darker yellow (made by adding Golden Ochre to the Cad Yellow).
This process of adding one transparent layer on top of another
will continue throughout the project.
Red and Sepia
Next up: A very thin layer of Sepia to start bringing out
the trees and the ground around the building - plus highlights
of Scarlet and English Red on the signs, awnings, etc.
