Using photos shot on location in Switzerland, I plan my painting using a thumbnail study. This is my roadmap or plan. I change the things that need to be changed and work out the values to create [...]

I use a 2H pencil to carefully sketch in the outline of my image on my 140 lb watercolor paper. Sometimes I use a light cross hatch or diagonal strokes to indicate where the shadows will be. Most [...]

A closeup of the schloss. Using simple value shapes I start to build the form and mass of the building. Notice the warms on the sunny side, and the cool blues forming on the shadow side. This [...]

As I lay in the sky using a wet in wet technique, I am conscious of the diagonal shapes in the cloud formations which actually guide the viewers eye to the castle. While the sky is drying I lay [...]

Everything comes together here the way I had envisioned. The light and dark shapes dramatically guide the viewer to the castle. I can still remember the awe I felt when I followed this same path [...]

The finished painting.

Now when it comes to castles, I get excited. I have visited many of them throughout Europe. Thanks to my good friends Max and Silvia Von Planta I had a chance to see some really unusual schlosses [...]