Painting the distant Venetian buildings

I start by painting the distant buildings first. The watercolor paints I use are Burnt Sienna with a little Alizarin Crimson for the roofs and then Burnt Sienna with a little Yellow Ochre and some Raw Umber for the walls. I use lots of water for these stage as they will be the lightest tones of the buildings to accentuate that feeling of space and distance in the painting.

While the paint is wet I drop in hints of windows, doorways and balconies with French Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. I also drop in some of this darker mixture below (under the bridge) to represent the discolorations on the buildings close to the waterline.

Note that I did not bother painting around the bridge but just painted right through it. Later I will add another glaze on the bridge which will bring it forward to its correct position in the picture plane.

With these distant Venetian buildings competed let your painting dry fully.

Continue to: Painting Venetian buildings with watercolor – step 5