Capturing Light in a Watercolor Street Scene
Jul 08, 2024Whether I’m painting a street scene, a landscape, or an interior, I am always observing the light. Light is essential to capturing a scene’s atmosphere and depicting realistic and dynamic dimensions.
But achieving this in a scene isn’t simple - and street scenes present unique challenges to an artist concerned with light play. Let me teach you some key strategies to paint authentic and luminous light in your streetscapes.
How to Convey Light in a Watercolor Painting Street Scene
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In today’s video, I walk you through the process of painting a scene in the beautiful town of Montreuil-Bellay, France. I had the privilege of visiting here this summer, where gorgeous scenes like this were around every corner.
Street Scene Watercolor Strategies
Here are a few strategies I employ when painting street scenes like these:
1. Identify the brightest part of your painting in your first wash.
In order for the light in your watercolor to read correctly, you’ve got to start your painting with the light in mind. This means that even before you put paint to paper, you need to identify what part of your scene you want the brightest.
Here is the first wash of my painting:
Notice that I have already determined the brightest part of the painting (the side of that nearly-white building in the middle of the paper). This is the phase of my painting where I still have access to these light values - and the white of the paper. If I am not certain where I want the light to be most brilliant at this point, it’s not going to turn out the way I want it.
Lights are difficult (nearly impossible) to add in after you’ve applied watercolor paint and allowed it to dry. So the placement of the brightest area must be made right away.
2. Consider reflective surfaces.
Street scenes often include reflective surfaces (like cars) which present an opportunity to create some nuanced light play to enhance the overall mood and atmosphere.
Cars are a great example of a reflective subject that you can use to convey a subtle feeling of light. Let’s look closely at the car in my Montreuil-Bellay scene.
This car is made up of reflective surfaces, and therefore it reflects the colors around it. Notice that I painted the windshield with cooler colors. I made this choice because I wanted to show that it’s reflecting the cool blue of the sky. Same with the hood and roof - I used cooler colors.
On the side and bottom of the car, on the other hand, I wanted to incorporate the warmth of the road. This is a good rule of thumb - cooler on the surfaces that are facing the sky and warmer colors on surfaces reflecting the ground.
When you can get this right, it will work hand-in-hand with all the other choices you’re making to create dynamic light in your street scene.
3. Paint strong washes to provide contrast.
Bright, luminous light only pops when there is a full range of values in your watercolor scene. So that means that each of our watercolor washes need to be strong.
This is a common mistake I see students make on their first and second washes. They hold back too much, and once the wash dries, the strength of their values fades to a less desirable value.
In fact, this happened to me this time around. As I neared the end of my second wash, I was unhappy with the side of this building. I knew that if my middle value wash wasn’t strong enough, the light values would diminish too. So I made the decision to glaze over the side of this building:
Do you see the difference? It’s slight, but this stronger wash served the painting well in the end. It provides more contrast against the light values and broadens the spectrum of values in the painting.
4. Don’t judge whether you’ve achieved believable light until you’ve completed the whole watercolor process.
When I paint watercolor street scenes (and most other scenes, to be honest), I follow a three-step process that helps me to focus on the task in front of me. Dividing my work flow into three tangible steps allows me to banish those voices that are urging me forward to make the painting “look like something.”
As you can see, the painting is pretty abstract after the first wash. Even after the second, things are undefined and hazy. It can be really tempting to dip into the darker values and defining details before it’s time. But the first wash is your opportunity to achieve those bright brights - an opportunity that closes once you start dropping in darker values.
Trust the process and everything will come together in the right order.
Remember, you need a complete range of values represented in your painting to convey believable and captivating light. You don’t have a complete range in the first wash or even the second, so it is not time to evaluate when you are at that point.
Wait until you’re finished to assess your work. And even then - after that third wash - you might be fatigued and a little “too close” to the work. Sometimes it’s good to step away for a bit and come back the next day with fresh eyes. This is often a better time to determine whether you’ve achieved what you had hoped.
5. Use gouache sparingly and on key elements of the watercolor street scene.
When you want to regain some highlights in your painting after your watercolor process is completed, you can use some gouache. It’s great for getting back that little sparkle, those little bits of light that you weren’t able to paint around.
In this painting of Montreuil-Bellay I used gouache on a lamp hanging on the side of a building that needed a tiny highlight. I also added a few glimmers on the car and the figure, just to show where the light is most intense.
Gouache is a great tool, but use it sparingly on those few little areas that need it at the very end of your watercolor painting process.
What Believable Light Can Do For a Watercolor Scene
Why is light so important? Whether we choose to notice it or not, light defines every environment we find ourselves in. We respond to light emotionally, practically, and creatively. It is an essential part of the way we perceive the world.
It follows, then, that light is an important consideration for a watercolor artist. Believable light signals the time of day, the season, and the relationship between subjects on the page. Beautiful light sets a mood, adds depth and dimension, and elicits an emotional response from viewers. Getting this one aspect of a painting right can take a scene from good to great.
I hope the aforementioned tips help you to make progress on creating believable light in your watercolor street scenes!
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