Simplify your subject by painting a shadow pattern. This approach focuses on painting shadow pattern first and building the painting around it.
SIMPLIFY Your Subject By Painting A Shadow Pattern - Material List
My Palette
- Winsor & Newton Winsor Yellow
- Winsor & Newton Winsor Yellow Deep
- American Journey Halloween Orange
- Daniel Smith Pyrrol Scarlet
- Winsor & Newton Permanent Rose
- Winsor & Newton Permanent Alizarin Crimson
- American Journey Joe’s Green
- American Journey Cerulean Blue
- American Journey Cobalt Blue
- Winsor & Newton Winsor Blue Red Shade
- Holbein Permanent Violet
Brushes Used During This Painting
- Winsor & Newton One Stroke Sable ½”
- Winsor & Newton Series 995 Synthetic 1″
- Robert Simmons Skyflow White Sable 1½”
Painted On Paper
- Saunders Waterford 140lb Cold Press, 15″ x 22″
SIMPLIFY Your Subject By Painting A Shadow Pattern - Reference Images
SIMPLIFY Your Subject By Painting A Shadow Pattern - The Lesson
Hello everyone and welcome back to my studio for another exciting week of watercolor painting. This week we’re visiting another beautiful Mediterranean country – Italy.
The painting is based on a little sketch I did on my vacation in Italy back in 2016 while I was passing through a little town called Grottammare. Italy is truly a magical country – not only because of the beauty of its landscapes, but the character of its cities and the spirit of its people.
It seems like there’s at least a couple churches and other significant historical buildings even in the smallest of towns. One such church is the reference for this week’s painting.
In my studio drawing, based on the small on-location sketch, I took the subject’s structure a little bit further. Notice the stylization of the church’s elements. An especially noticeable is my altering of the main tower. The tower is originally connected to the church structure on the right-hand side. I flipped the church along its vertical axis and added a little chapel in front of the church to increase the perception of depth via overlapping planes.
I also changed the shape of the tower’s roof from pyramid, angular and pointy to a more dome-like shape. The idea behind this change was to introduce contrast to the predominantly angular structure and to mirror the singular curve of the central wall. This way there is a number of curves echoing as opposed of singular curve among the sea of straights.
The paper I use today is half sheet (15″ x 22″) Saunders Waterford, Cold Press. I don’t draw on my paper.
Since my subject features a prominent shadow pattern, I use this opportunity to start my painting by establishing the shadow pattern first. The shadow pattern describes form in my subject. It does this through suggesting three-dimensionality by describing planes that are turned away from light source (shade) and/or planes modified by cast shadows.
In a representational type of work, the shadow pattern is an integral part of the painting. A common mistake is to treat shadow pattern as an afterthought. While it’s true that not all subjects offer such prominent shadow pattern to work with, when they do, it’s most educational to focus on the shadow pattern.
I paint my shadow pattern with a single color diluted to light value. The paint I use is Winsor Blue Red Shade. I paint the shaded planes using a darker value, a mixture of more concentrated blue and some red. These suggest shade and give me more flexibility in explaining the form of my subject.
That is all for today’s demo. I hope you learned something new and better understand the role of shadow pattern. In the next video we’ll continue refining our subject by introducing complementary color notes. If you enjoyed this video and the lesson, please leave a comment, like the video and subscribe to my channel, and I will see you in the next one.
