On a recent trip to Ireland I enjoyed walking the grounds of the Blarney Castle and doing numerous sketches. I completed this painting back in my studio focusing on the small tower near the [...]

The finished painting.

Although I did a careful drawing on the watercolor paper, I ignored it when I laid in the initial sky washes. While the paper was wet I dripped various colors into the sky area allowing the [...]

Since the tower is going to be silhouetted against the sky, I can now paint over the top of the wet-into-wet wash when it is dry. I am blocking in the rough shapes and will work on the detail later.

As I add dark passages to the shadow areas, the castle begins to have form and mass.

I finish up with the darkest darks, and add detail to bring the whole scene into focus. the wet-in-wet sky gives freshness to the scene.