Sunny afternoon in Toledo Spain
It was almost 5 PM in Spain when we arrived in Toledo with the local day tour guide. As we walked the streets of the old city, we came into this exquisite Plazza called ‘de Ayuntamiento‘
The building faces the large Cathedral in Toledo. One visiting the old town cannot miss it. It was designed by Juan de Herrera, the greatest architect of the Spanish Renaissance style. Its construction began in 1575 and was completed in stages as funding became available. Its final structure, as it can be admired today, dates from 1703.
Given the short time allowed to spend in the Plaza before heading to the Cathedral, I had only time to take a few photos for reference. The one to the left has a view that attracted me the most, given the dynamic of light and dark produced by the cast shadows over the pavement.
The diagonal straight line originating at the base of the first major vertical shape of the tower on the right looks magical. For a moment, it connects two major built structures of the city (City Hall and the Cathedral) by a stripe of light and dark. An optical illusion, a fading moment in time that only happens in the afternoon in June. I think of a future generation that has lost the memory of the site’s historical significance, imagining possible explanations for the buildings and assigning them some relation to that natural phenomenon, light.
Since my purpose for this time of year is to practice painting more, I spent time making thumbnail studies in search of a new painting composition inspired by photo references taken in Spain in June 2026.
Although memories of Spain are still fresh with me, I could not understand the beauty of the building without iterating through a series of thumbnail studies, imagining it being lit by daylight at various times.
This is how I imagined the building to look on a sunny morning.
The view would be too calm for my taste because it lacks strong variations in values. I am not sure about the shapes of dark except for those produced by the shades cast by the large tree to the left on the pavement. That would be too little for a dynamic contrast.
A second iteration of the value thumbnail study is for a composition where the building is lit as in the photo reference.
This iteration allows for better dynamics from value. The large diagonal shape connects with the vertical of the right side of the building. Nice. However, the viewer first sees the top of the right tower, then moves down along the diagonal.
I felt the top-right corner was too empty.
I sketched a more detailed value study, focusing on the building’s architectural details to visually analyze the composition’s merits. I liked this one more.
I did yet another iteration, aiming to lighten up the canopy of the tree at the top right to allow for the sky to come through.
Yesterday, after lunch, I freed up 4 hours for painting the composition in one session. For the last couple of paintings, I got into the habit of completing one composition in a single session, following a workflow of three stages: background washes, foreground washes, and midground, with breaks to allow the paper to dry between them. I am in the process of internalizing the watercolour clock presented Joseph Zbukvic in his book Mastering Atmosphere & Mood in Watercolor.
The result of my work is the painting below.
