Empty Room

I was trying to play with light in this painting... The girl could have been a lot darker as the light  was coming in through the window behind her but I was afraid of over working the darks on her body, so I left her as she was. Will have to work on achieving darker skin tones for these slightly silhouetted Paintings with strong light.

Venice Afternoon.... amended

After looking at this painting on the screen, I could see something was missing. I have gone and done some amendments on it which have helped a bit.

The blue wall above the middle doorway was really bugging me as well as the tone of the water. I added a window to the blue wall and created a balcony. I also darkened the water a bit more with Cobalt Turquoise. Hope this does the trick and makes it more balanced.

BTW.... this is the first Architectural watercolour I have done. Painting buildings have always scared me!!!!!!

Venice Afternoon..... completed!

I have to admit the texture of this paper (Saunders 200lbs)
was so different to work with. I normally work in Bockingfords
or Fabriano or if I'm feeling generous, Arches. This paper is very
spongy and handles paint well. You have to add a lot of pigment to
the paper to get dark effects and tone.But it has wonderful flow,
I loved working with this quality! I might have to splurge out and
invest in some on-line sometime as we don't get it here in South Africa.!

Anyway here is the final painting..........

Venice Afternoon

I was scrummaging through my old washes I had done some time
back on a workshop I did when I was in the UK earlier this year,
and came across this wash I did, I had obviously had something
in mind with it, but couldn't remember what. I was in the mood
for trying out paper I don't use often and found this sheet with
washes on it just begging to be finished! I have never been to
Venice but have seen some wonderful pictures of the beautiful
canals from friends. After studying the washes I had laid out
on the sheet I saw a 'Venice' scene, so started making up as
I went along.

I should have taken a photo of the sheet with just the washes
on to show you where the inspiration came from, but I got a
bit carried away and managed to only take the photo halfway
through!

 You can see some of the washes on the left and bottom

of the painting.