A color study for painting Cascais

A color study for painting Cascais

Relate to: Sketch and tonal study, and Painting

Based on my previous experiences with painting directly from a sketch and by looking at the inspirational photo, I took my time to play with mixing watercolour on a small-sized color study (8×6 in) to select the pigment for the larger painting before investing more.

As one can note from the image above, I divided an Arches sheet of 9 in x 12 to paint the color study next to the value one. To paint the sky, I started with a tea mix of Phthalo Blue, painted wet-on-dry, leaving out a few sections to markclouds. For the water, I mixed some Ultramarin Blue in that tea puddle. The rooftops I painted with Quinacridone Red. For the greens of vegetation, I mixed New Gamboge with Ultramarin Blue in milk consistency. For the gray, I mixed Prussian Blue with Pyrrol Scarlet increasing the value more and more to try to get to the darkest values to paint the edge of the peninsula.

My scanner is not the best for capturing the study image so I took another photo with my cell phone.