Ancona, Italy, 15" x 11".
A city gate in the old part of Ancona, Italy. This was a good exercise in many watercolour techniques - 1) the initial wash and leaving out part of the road surface by painting with the side of a mop brush, 2) wet in wet areas in the shadows 3) softening edges with a brush and clear water (the foreground shadow) 4) negative painting around figures and the car, and 5) using a bit of body paint for figure details and the no entry sign.
Fabriano, Italy, 22" x 15".
A shopping street in central Fabriano (where the Fabriano watercolor paper comes from) Italy. Based on a reference photo of mine and I wish I had taken many more on a visit there. 100's of subjects in this town and typical of many 'medieval' towns in this part of Italy. Buildings left and right were given vary loose treatment. Well the one on the right was just some dry brush strokes to give the impression of window frames etc.. Buildings also had plenty of extra colour added to them while the first wash was drying.
Ancona, Italy, 15" x 11".
Ancona, a busy coastal city on the Adriatic coast of Italy with a large ferry port and fishing harbour. Various craft are moored all around the crescent shaped harbour surrounding the old citadel. This was a good practice of washes - first with the sky running from a cobalt blue to yellow ochre and going lighter towards the sun on the left, and then the harbour. The wash gets slightly darker towards the foreground and carefully painting around the tops of the boats. The background was treated in a loose style - too much detail there to be distracted with!
Fabriano, Italy, 22" x 15".
The main shopping street through the medieval town of Fabriano. Just an ordinary composition of a shopping street and not the wonderful architecture just up the road. The whole painting was done with two brushes - a large (I think a 16 or 18 in size) and a medium sized mop brush. I do tend to keep changing my mind over brush strategy - having a mixture of synthetics and squirrel mops, it sometimes gets confusing over which to choose. Going with squirrel I find tends to produce a looser style painting.
Fabriano, Italy, 15" x 11"
I don't often do close-ups of cars, but this being an Italian scene I had to include a Fiat. I must have been going through a colour mood with those bright colours of the buildings, but going quite cool into the shadows. I resisted the temptation of slapping on white gouache for the figure highlights (just did some careful painting around head and shoulders) but it crept onto the car headlights!
Watercolour of Venice, 11" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300 gms
The Rio dei Barcaroli from the bridge of Piscina de Frozzaria. Steps for this painting, 1) initial wash starting with the sky and working down, added yellow ochre in the middle and then the canal wash going darker at the bottom. When dry, 2) background and right hand buildings, painting around window details. Then 3) the left hand building. A lot more detail on this one, plenty of cad red to build the colour and paying attention to the perspective. Last 4) water reflections in mainly a cobalt tone and boat details.
Watercolour of Sorrento, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300gms.
Another attempt at the central Piazza Tasso in Sorrento. Sky had a bit of cerulean blue and viridian green mixed together, and I think that worked quite well against the warm tones of the buildings which were done with yellow ochre (mainly) and bit of light red. The shadows unders the shop canopies have bits left unpainted giving hopefully the impression of something going on there like people etc.
Watercolour of Sorrento, Italy, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300gms.
Piazza Tasso is the main square in Sorrento and a busy place for traffic and tourists. This scene is looking towards the facade of the Baroque Church del Carmine (centre). The scene was based on an old holiday snap and I had to do some imagination on the people and cars, plus I moved the pedestrian crossing a bit to help the composition.
A recent commission, painting from a photo of Burano near Venice.
So quiet a colourful picture of this pretty location! And the challenge of not too many shadows which I tend to look for.
Watercolour of Burano, 22" x 15" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300gms
So my interpretation of the scene. Not too many details changed.
A wash went over the whole picture starting with the sky of course. Then the different buildings were painted, first the background buildings and then the main avenue. The window surrounds were done with white gouache as a later stage.
Watercolour of Cagliari, Sicily, 15" x 11" on Saunders Waterford Rough 300gms.
One side of the Piazza Yenne in Cagliari stands this rather ornate bus stop (or it might have been a tourist bus stop). I thought it made a good subject with the highlights of a litter bin and the surrounding pavement. Foreground was painted in two washes, with the second leaving some indication of the foreground pedestrian crossing. Right hand tree and building were painted fairly loosely and with dry brush for making architectural details.
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