Watercolor Tutorial How to Improve Light and Depth in Your Painting 

I'm so glad! Thank you so much!

Thank you so much!

Thank you for sharing Renee! I remember the feeling "doesn't get dark enough". When I studied at art school, I only had HB and could not understand why it's always pale grey no matter how much cross hatching I do. In my last year at school my mum got me a 4B, this was an eye opener! I still have my final piece of work from school that I did with that pencil ☺️ In regards to Alizarin, I use Perm. too, plain Alizarin is a fugitive, although gorgeous pigment! I never could believe how colour can just disappear until I saw a mostly grey watercolor painting 😭

I'm so glad! Thank you!

Gracias!

Thank you David! Yes you are so right, values and colour harmony either make or break your painting. You can argue many things but these two an absolute core...and you are right with "art on its own", Alvaro is a living proof to it 😉

Thank you Stephan!

I'm so glad! Thank you!

Thank you, I'm very glad!

Thank you Tommy! It's a pleasure!

Glad it was helpful!

Thank you so much! I'm so glad!

Thank you Jason! 😊

Thank you! I know it's only a 10m video, but every point is asking for "practice and thinking" pretty much on repeat :) sometimes I paint for weeks and then get a light bulb moment...it usually can be summarised in one word or sentence...at the same time so much practice and thinking went into it...I love these moments, they are very satisfying ☺️ but I do believe these things need to be remembered with "muscle memory" ...there is never enough time for analytics when paint

Thanks Monesha!

Thank you Sam! I'm very glad!

Always a pleasure! Thank you Mirena!

Thank you Constance! I would be very happy to see you there!

I'm so glad! Thank you Janet!

Thank you Willie! Always a pleasure!

Thank you for your comment Arvin! I'm so happy to hear that!

This is awesome! I'm so glad it's helpful!

Thank you Subhankar!

That's great! So happy it was helpful!

Always a pleasure! Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you very much!

Thank you!

Thanks Ann!

I'm glad it's helpful!

Hi Marvin, re Value Study, not so much now, only if I'm unsure about the composition. With practice you strat seeing things in values and tones instead of colours. In re removing/adding things: I always try to simplify, if I squint my eyes and I don't see it... It's gone 😄 in terms of adding/removing big things...such as adding one more level to a building, I always do it for a better composition, just experience I suppose. In re outside: no, no time for this, things chang too fast, but in reality it would be even more beneficial 😊

Thank you very much for your timely information! 😊

Terima kasih banyak Widi!

Glad it was helpful! And thank you for the suggestion, will definitely do. But in short: middle value shape is what MAKES your painting. It's is the geometry of composition. If you have a boat on the left, a person in the center, another boat on the right, etc., It will all read as separate pieces, very "bits and pieces", a gathering of small objects. But for a painting to work and read well from far away it needs to be unified, and you also need a "road" for the viewer eye to travel through.

Hi again Nina. Thank you for your kind answer. I think that what is confusing me is that when you start doing your middle values in this video, you start with the windows to the left which are all separate parts, it seems to me that these windows are part of the third wash (dark values). I heard you say that you don’t differentiate the 2D and 3D wash precisely as they often merge together, and I think that is why you can start with these windows. In a way it does not make any difference for you: you don’t feel you have to wait to paint them. But according to the explanation, am I wrong to consider that the real unifying part of this painting, the big connected middle-values-shape, the “real” 2d wash in a way, “appear” at 9:18? Or am I just confused? Haha

Yes, that's right: 9.18 - the big middle value shape starts from the top left shadow on the building, connected to the trees above the roof, then to the background and the shadows on the building on the right, through the trees on the right and finally the shadow on the ground - this is the geometry of the painting. The windows are "details", these little things can be connected or left alone. The reason I painted them first is to paint the shadows over them. It softened the edges a little. If you paint them wet on wet, the edges sometimes too blurry, and wet on dry obviously gives you sharp edges, which is not ideal for details in shadow.

Thank you very much for your generous answers Nina it is very appreciated. I tried to paint this image yesterday and it is essentially a fail. But at least I can point out some of my main mistakes. My first wash was too powerful. I use Schmincke paints and I feel it does not fade so much when it comes to dry, it is indeed very pigmented. I always fall in this trap. Because of this too intense wash I had a hard time with the contrasts and I ended up overworking some parts to get them darker. The result feel “gouachish”. And finally, and not the least, I have to admit I don’t know how to mix greys and neutral tints properly: they always end up to vibrant, too coloured. If you have any tutorial on it I definitely would be happy to look at it as greys ad neutral tints seem to be the key to a more realistic rendering. Is it a complete disaster? For some parts yes, but we still see what it is haha! I consider being part of your patreon but I honestly doubt to have the level yet: I still have a lot to learn from your free videos.

Hi Neorhim, thank you so much for the suggestion! I will definitely do it. And yes, I talk about it in my demos, but it's a great idea to do a separate tutorial. I'll try to fit it in next month.

@@nvfineartstudio7296 I would be so happy to hear you talk about it. I'm pretty sure it is a very rich and underestimated topic. Very few tutorials talk about it in depth on RU-vid.

Thank you!

Welcome my friend

Hi Diana, When you do your middle value shape on the value study, it includes darks as well. You just paint them on top of the middle value. I have a tutorial showing this method, it's called "Watercolor City Tutorial - watercolor tips on values". In re to the windows, start at value 6 and vary to 9, so they are both middle and dark. Honestly, I don't like separating too much middle and dark wash, but it's just my style. I get a better variety of edges and cleaner darks this way. I would definitely recommend separating middle and dark wash, if you only recently started with watercolors. Hope this helps. 👍

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