Step by Step Preserving White

Port Grimaud France

My latest step by step painted from a photo taken on a visit to Port Grimaud which is near Saint Tropez France, I was really drawn to the counter change created by the shadows surrounding the window frame and to portray it in simplicity and freshness.

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Materials

• Bockingford 465gms rough “not”
• 3b pencil
• Winsor and Newton Cotman Series watercolour paints
• Cad Red, Cad Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue
• No 12 & No 4 Round sable brush

Love the punchy darks!!

Brief synopsis

So just a quick sketch using a soft 3b on 450gms Bockingford and generous amounts of water as I drop in cad red, cad yellow and a small amount of cobalt blue for the background and then it’s a mixture of the same three again to achieve that light blue for the shutter, this is pretty near to the original colour and I apply this lightly and then once dry strengthen with a second wash on the areas where I can see shadows, I’ll punch in the darks later but I just want to suggest them at this stage, and I soften off with water.

I then mix 2 washes of my shadow colour from cobalt blue and cad red and add a touch or burnt sienna to knock it back, one of the mixes is light and one darker and thicker, ( this by adding more pigment and less water to the 2^nd darker mix). I then apply the lighter mix to the shadow areas in the windows and begin to form the curtains in each of the windows, and paint in the cast shadow from the shutters.

Once dry I begin to work in the darker areas with the punchy thicker mix and drop in some burnt sienna to some of the window openings so the colour isn’t uniform. I do the same to the cast shadows from the shutters and touch in the shadow area son the shutters themselves, I’m careful to reserve the white between the shutters to make my focal point, and there you have it! Understated and uncomplicated but appealing in its simplicity J