Cityscape in Watercolour

Finished painting - Meeting Street, Quorn

In his demonstration, Leicester based artist Andy Shore gave us a demonstration on how to paint a cityscape (meeting Street, Quorn) using watercolours. He came prepared with a Saunders Waterford 140lb stretched paper pre-drawn with portions that were masked out using a stencil and sprayed with latex. Andy said that this was a much cheaper option than masking fluid and easier to remove.

Prepared paper masked off using latex sprayed over a stencil

Andy at work

After wetting the surface of the paper and using Winsor & Newton professional watercolours, he first set about quickly laying a wash for the sky using lemon yellow and venetian red. Other colours used in the painting were Cobalt Blue, Cobalt Violet, ultramarine and burnt sienna. The two cobalt colours were mixed to paint the foreground shadows, after peeling off the latex.

Andy said that it was possible to glaze darker colours only two or three times before they started to look muddy. The trees were blocked in at first, then the finer branches were done using a sword brush. Lastly, finer details were added, though Andy said that it was best to suggest these somewhat. Another finishing touch was to lift out some of the paint for highlights and smoke from one of the chimneys.


This was a super demonstration, much enjoyed by our members.

Source photo