Paint Sicily and Hallstatt:
Want to learn how to paint Sicily and Hallstatt in watercolor? Learning to portray the mood of a landscape, in particular the time of the day, can be challenging for beginners. In this watercolor article and free workshop, I’ll show you how I approach and paint these two scenes. View the workshop here.
Noto, Sicily:
This scene had very few dark elements such as shadows. When painting a scene like this, the darks are even more important as the shadows under the shades and cars, figures serve the function of bringing out the light in your painting.
Really tried to keep the wash of the background buildings and ground as light as I could. I used a mixture of warm colors such as yellow ochre and lemon yellow. Keep the concentration to approximately 1/4 pigment, 3/4 water. It looks weak when dried but once you add in the darker shadows, the light pops out like magic.
One thing I went through in the video was simplifying a complicated set of buildings down into smaller shapes. Observe the number of floors and rows, mark some guidelines, then continue on drawing the smaller shapes within. Start from the large shapes and work your way down to the smaller ones! It’s the only way to keep sane.
Hallstatt, Austria
Watercolor Tips for Nocturne Lanscapes
Most of this was painted wet-in-wet. I always add the lighter colors/warm areas first. So here I did the light on the buildings and reflections in the water. It’s nearly impossible to add warm hues after the darker, cooler ones. You’ll find more success adding the warm ones in first, then adding the cooler hues after.
A large amount of this painting was completed with wet-in-wet techniques, especially the water in the foreground. It creates a softer-looking painting. But more importantly, it connects up all the elements from top to bottom.
One thing I would like to do with this painting is to darken the sky another shade or two as it dried lighter than expected. This will again change the mood to make it appear later in the evening. It will also emphasize the light on the buildings more.
Conclusion
This article has given you a variety of tips and techniques necessary to Paint Sicily and Hallstatt in watercolor, as well as a variety of similar scenes. Give it a try with another reference photo! Watch the video for the full experience and best format for learning watercolor painting.
