Road to 27 Rue Claude Monet, Watercolor

         

             Road to 27 Rue Claude Monet
              12 x 16 Watercolor
             by Pat Fiorello
       $300

In this semester's watercolor class, "Taking Your Paintings to the Next Level", we are really focused on going beyond technique and simply copying photos to improving the design of our paintings. Moving from the literal thinking of "paint what's there" to the artist's language of  organizing shapes, values, colors, edges into a pleasing composition.  Here are a few steps in the development of the painting above, starting with the value sketch:

Simple value sketch of large shapes of light, medium and dark.

Begin with large, light or softer areas- sky and distant trees

I don't always do this but since the small fence with the leaves draped over it was my intended center of interest, I decided to get the intricate shapes and colors in there next.

Add in remaining buildings and begin foliage

Continue laying in remaining areas and adjust values and edges as needed.