Mastering Warm Realistic Light: A Watercolor Tutorial for Captivating Art

Aug 09, 2023

One of the reasons I pick up a brush and paint watercolor is because there is light in the scene that I want to portray. Some of my favorite scenes are evening and night scenes where I really need to create a strong, believable source of light.

So, today I'm going to show you my exact process for painting a night scene (also known as a nocturne) and the watercolor techniques I use to push the light and create strong contrast.

Illuminating Art: Learn to Paint Warm Realistic Light in Watercolor

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Unlock the Secrets of Light in Night Scenes: A Step-by-Step Guide

So here you can see I went ahead and laid out a drawing for the scene:

And here's a look at my reference photo.

There's a powerful feeling of light on this shed, and that is really going to be the focal area of the scene. So let me quickly scan ahead and show you where we're going with this. So we're going to lay in the light values and come in with some really thick paint and end up with a scene like this:

So let me walk you through how I got to this.

Start With the Brightest Part of Your Painting

What I'm going to do is tone the light areas of the paper. So I'm creating a thin mixture of Raw Sienna and Quinacrodone Gold. I apply a thin warm wash to establish the light here in this scene.

Now, I understand that I'm going to be painting around all the other areas to get much, much darker. This is the lightest area of the painting, so I have to keep that in mind. So I'm dropping in these warm colors and letting them flow into each other, leaving the front-facing part of that shed as the brightest part of my scene.

And then I move around the scene and I paint the lightest values. Here's a look at that.

You'll see here I let some warm and cool mix on the paper knowing that this is the warm area of my shadow. And if you look back at the reference photo, you can see the same thing happening.

I want to create the same effect made when the cool shadows meet the warm colors of the light. Notice also that I've left some lighter areas on these houses in the background, and that is because I want to go back in later with a touch of gouache and create a feeling of these porch lights.

So I went ahead and connected some of this wet wash down with what's going on here in the bottom. I will be going over all of this again to make it much darker as we go. So after I lay in my warmest values, it's time to let this dry.

Mix Strong Values Using New Watercolor Paint

And then once I come back, I can start to really push the values and paint a lot stronger. I'm going to go over the sky once again so I can really darken that up and push the light here in my focal area. I'm mixing up a rich blend of dark blue colors.

To create a really rich mixture for this sky, I'm using:

Ultramarine Blue
Cerulean
A bit of Lavender, and
Payne’s Gray

I'm working with a medium sized brush, and I start at the top of the scene and work my way down. I paint right through where those trees are going to be, knowing that I'm going to paint the trees darker over the top. It might seem like I'm going too dark for the sky, but you really want to push these values in order for the light to really stand out in this painting.

As I get lower in the sky, I have to be careful to avoid the areas of light that I want to preserve. So there's a little bit of light on the porches, so I paint around that. And I definitely want to preserve the light on the shed. I paint right up to it and then take this wet bead and connect it to the shadow side of the shed, always trying to work from a wet edge.

I go back, I reload my brush, I come back and work from a wet edge trying to make all of this very connected. And I switch to some warmer colors to use around this light area. And again, I just let those colors flow right into each other. And I still have this wet edge back here that I can work with.

And I'm throwing in some darker areas, painting that house, still working wet and wet and connecting all of this as one big shape. And you'll notice that the shadow on the road I went ahead and connected right into this wash. All of that is going to connect.

Soften Edges for Believable Light

And here what I'm doing is I'm taking a clean brush, a clean, damp brush, and I want to soften this edge. If you'll notice in the reference photo, there's a soft edge on that shadow. And I want to create the same thing here in my painting.

I think that really helped the light feel more believable there. And it also kind of keeps our eye from getting stuck right here with a hard edge. We can look back into the scene and get lost in a little bit more.

Find Connections and Mix Up Your Washes

After I have softened up that edge, I'm coming in and connecting that right into the fence again. I want to keep this connection going and I'm using some warmer colors here, some Raw Sienna, Neutral Tint, and now I'm adding some cooler colors where the fence is going to be in shadow. I don't like to just use one mixture and a large area of the scene. I try to create little variations. In every wash, you can see a little warm here with some cool color warm here with cool color.

Just mix it up. Variety is important. I don't want to use the same wash in a very large part of the scene. Keep adding a little bit of variety. It's a beautiful part of our medium that we really need to take advantage of. And so this darker area down here, I'm connecting that right into the fence. And you can see that we are creating a nice area of interest where we're getting the color changes and the contrast right.

We can already start to see where the focus of the painting is supposed to be. So I continue down with this and then I have a cool shadow wash that I want to mix right into the edge of this while it’s still damp. So you're really starting to get this theme here, connecting, connecting everywhere, trying to find connections.

Create Glowing Light

Now that I've done that, I can start to tweak and make little additions and finesse this a little bit.

One thing I want to do is take a damp brush and I want to soften the edge around some of these porch lights. I really want to get that glow effect that light has. So again, back to a damp brush that is clean.

And I'm just going to push down and lift off some of those areas around the light, on these porches, in the background. And I think that makes a nice difference. Creating that little bit of glow goes a long ways and creating a realistic feeling of light. Now we are to the part in the painting that is really going to make this light stand out.

Add the Darks

We're getting into the darks and if you squint at the scene, you can see the darkest parts are the trees behind the houses and the trees that kind of frame up this shed here. And so I have a dark mixture. I'm using more of my rich colors. I'm using some Neutral Tint, some Ultramarine Blue, and creating a really thick mixture.

And I'm using a softer brush here. I want some of these trees to have a nice broken edge. And so I've loaded up this soft brush and I'm working on creating that feeling. But you can tell that right away. When we start getting these darks in, the light really starts to become apparent in our painting. And I think that's really the trick of doing a nocturnal scene, is having the patience, understanding that whatever you do in one wash is setting yourself up for the next wash.

And after you can begin to understand that process, you can be a little bit more patient and you can really see your paintings come to life when you stick to that process. So I'm working my way around the scene, adding these darks that are really making a big difference and bringing the light. And I like that nice light pole right here in front of this bright area.

Add the Details

Again, I want my most contrast right around the shed, and we're getting to the point where we're just down to some little details to finish the scene.

I like adding a few little directional lines and some texture. The hard work and the heavy lifting of this painting is done in these little bits of details can really direct our eye around the scene to bring a finished feel to the painting.

When you get to this stage, the trick is to not overdo it. The temptation is to look at the reference photo and get immersed in all the little details around the scene. What I suggest doing instead is looking at the focal area and working around that area, really keeping the main idea of your painting in mind the whole time.

There's some little slats of wood that are creating cast shadows on the surface of that shed. I want to create some of that detail, and recommend practicing on a little scrap piece of paper so you can make sure you have the right consistency on your brush before you commit to something on your painting. At the end of your painting, your brain is most tired, so this is when you need to be especially careful.

One wrong move, and you create something that you don't like. And then it's this domino effect of trying to fix what you don't like. It's not fun. So if you can use some scrap paper, figure out what type of mark you want to make first, you can be more confident and prevent those times when you create something that you're not happy with.

Final Touches on Your Watercolor Nocturne

Now I'm going and adding a few little final details, a few little broken bits of texture on the porches on these houses.

And after I get those little bits of details in, I decide I wanted a little punch of light. In order to do this, I use some gouache. I don't use a lot of it, but it is great for these times when I need a little punch of light. Look at the difference that makes by adding in that little porch light. The reason that this little glow is here makes so much more sense when you have a little dot of light. I like that much better.

If you ever think the gouache is just a little too stark, you can smudge it with your finger a little bit. It creates almost like a lens flare effect, and I like doing that as well. This is a very fun part of the painting. None of this works if you don't take your time to really build up your values and have a clear game plan from the very start of the painting.

One last thing I want to do was do a light glaze on top of the shed. I feel like by making it a little warmer and a little darker, it will help this area read just a little bit better and keep the focus of light really there on the face of the shed. I did a light little glaze with some Raw Sienna and went ahead and covered the whole top of the roof. And there you have it.

Here's a look at the final painting.