Industrial Watercolour Cityscape with Reflections

A project from our live show STUDIO 3 - INDUSTRY NEWS - Join Toni for her latest updates and a project - Broadcast 7TH AUG 22 · 07/08/2022 · watch it from 22:45

A dramatic watercolour painting featuring industrial buildings and towers reflected in water below. The technique uses dragging, splashing and layering to create depth, with a moody blue, brown and black colour palette that gives an atmospheric urban landscape effect.

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Step by step

1. Prepare your watercolour card or journal and gather two pots of water, watercolours, brushes (size 4, 6 or 8), a gift card or piece of thick card stock, and optional white gel pen and fine liner pen. ▶ watch 23:00
2. Practice the dragging technique first: paint a line of watercolour onto your card, then drag a gift card or thick card through the colour to create tower-like streaks. ▶ watch 23:30
3. Experiment with wet-on-wet technique by laying down clean water first, then adding colour lines and dragging through them to see how the paint flows differently. ▶ watch 24:00
4. Paint the top half of your page with clean clear water using a larger brush. ▶ watch 34:00
5. Add lines of blue watercolour at varying heights across the wet top half, leaving gaps between them. ▶ watch 35:15
6. Drag your gift card or thick card through the blue lines to create vertical tower shapes, making them slightly wonky rather than perfectly straight. ▶ watch 36:30
7. Add more blue colour down one side of some towers whilst still wet to create light and shade effects. ▶ watch 37:00
8. Mix a brown or rusty orange colour and repeat the process, adding lines and dragging through them to create additional towers overlapping the blue ones. ▶ watch 38:15
9. Mix black watercolour and add black tower lines and drags to create depth and contrast in your cityscape. ▶ watch 40:00
10. Paint the bottom half of your page with clean clear water to prepare for the reflection. ▶ watch 41:15
11. Spot blue, brown and black watercolour into the wet bottom half, placing colours below where they appear in the top half to create a reflection effect. ▶ watch 42:00
12. Paint a black line along the horizon where the buildings meet the water to separate the ground from the reflection. ▶ watch 44:00
13. Use your gift card to add more black lines and details to the buildings, creating edges and definition to frame individual structures. ▶ watch 45:30
14. Drag clean water through the black line at the horizon to blur and blend it, creating a muddy reflection effect in the water below. ▶ watch 49:15
15. Mix thick black watercolour and use your gift card to add bold black lines throughout, dragging them to create sharp edges on some buildings. ▶ watch 51:30
16. Add definition to the sides of buildings by painting colour with less water in your brush, allowing it to naturally bleed if still wet. ▶ watch 53:30

Tips from the show

• Use this as a practice run rather than expecting a masterpiece on your first attempt; do several versions to build confidence.
• If all your colours blend into one muddy mess, dry it off with a heat tool and layer more colour on top to create instant light, perspective and foreground/background separation.
• Don't fill all the gaps in your painting as leaving some white space makes it look more interesting and realistic.

Written up from the show itself. See every guide from our shows · free how-to guides · watch live on My Telly