Painting City Scenes by Frank Francese - Part 1: Watercolor Painting

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I would like to show you how to quickly put a city scene together using a big brush, bold colors, interesting shapes, people and cars using the exercises I showed you before.

Using a big brush we'll start off with some straight Cobalt Blue.

Start at the top and run it across very quickly. We can start cutting our shapes in like this. I think this particular scene is from York in England.

I really enjoy painting the English countryside.

I do not draw on my paper, I guess you folks out there have already guessed that. Once I have a line established on the page, I was always taught to never cross it. This will free you up and will enable you to do something very very interesting.

I like to treat painting as if I had colored paper and a pair of scissors - very quickly and simply.

If you work in big shapes as I'm doing now, and you work with great color and you work fast, you should be able to come up with something very enjoyable.

Next I'll come down here with a smaller brush and put in the roofs on these houses.

This board is on an angle so the paint will pool up along these edges here. You just want to pick it up with your brush.

I think it's important in watercolor to let the paint mix and not try to control it. Otherwise you'll become aggravated and it will show in your work.

Now I will go in and start filling in my figures. Before I can do anything else I need to establish my foreground and then I can negative paint my storefronts around the people and the cars that we have set up here.

Very simple and it's still the same process that I showed you when painting figures and painting automobiles.

This car here will give it some scale. Don't be too critical of your work, just get it on quickly and with authority. I believe you'll like the outcome. Next we'll come up here and I'll put some more people over here.

Then I can start putting in the storefronts here. I'll have a nice white building here with some windows in it, but first I have to establish some areas that will showcase these cars.

All the while I'm thinking of how I can speed this process up. When I paint quickly like this I'm not thinking about anything. I'm only thinking of just getting the paint down on the page quickly. I don't want to get real analytical about it, or let my mind catch up to me because then I'll start second-guessing myself. Once you start second-guessing yourself, you'll have real problems.

When this dried and ran into this wet area here I lost some of that definition, but I believe I can wait until it dries and put a little dark right there and I think it will pull right out and be just fine.

Near the cottages right here, this area will remain white, but I'm going to put some objects in the foreground here. My shadows will take care of some of this.

If this is dry we can come in and start applying some darks along the roof top line.

Now, watch this. We can put our foreground in like this - be sure to go around your cars and people - but this is starting to come together.

Category:

Howto & Style

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• watercolor
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[heavytransit]

@janetkatz1 confidence is earned with practice

[janetkatz1]

I wish I had your confidence.

[MrLemonade88]

what type of paper did you use?

it is 120gsm?

[asianlauf]

he doesnt even sketch..WTF!! genius!

[burmanhands]

In this business speed =spontaneous. There is too much "tight" work around. I like his language and his mastery of it. I have learnt something from this, thank you.

[uuduu7]

I admire his confidence and decisiveness, but don't like the use of the word "business" to describe his work .. shows a lack of intimacy with his work.. just an opinion..

[kuikai100]

a++++++++++++++++++

[klanar101]

NOBODY thinks he is an artist i only do maybe other people too.

[fromag123]

love how he says roof "ruff"