Watercolour Painting - middle stages

Watercolour painting - Staithes, North Yorkshire

The middle area was painted next. This included the buildings that line the beck in Staithes, the beck wall, the footbridge and finally the distant boats and water.

The buildings were painted almost individually apart from areas that matched in colour, for example the roof colour which were painted together. The walls etc are just simple washes using different colours, with overlays of more washes if require. Likewise with the window and door detail, single wash for the glass followed by the frames in one or two washes to create the form and then a wash for any shadows. Finishing off the building with the small details like chimney stacks and pots again using up to three washes (light, medium and dark).

The bridge was a combination of wet-into-wet and overlaying washes. The basic underlying washes were put down followed by the detail. Starting on the left hand wall the vegetation was painted first, followed by the stone work and the detailing of that before building up the shadow cast by the bridge.

The footbridge, railings and the figures on the bridge were painted next followed by the stone wall and area on the right that's in deep shadow. This had in places four or five washes to gain the colour and weight needed.

The beck wall and vegetation along it's top edge are made up again from a series of simple washes, large underlying areas first followed by smaller areas bringing out the detail, changing colour as and when required and lastly the darks and/or shadows were painted.

The three boats and water completed the middle section. Simple light, medium and dark washes created the basic forms followed by a just enough detail to portray the structures/equipment on the distant boats. The water and the reflections were a series of wet-into-wet washes followed by wet on dry when adding the details e.g. reflections, ripples.

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