Step 1
Watercolor painting of Scotney Tower in England by Roland Lee. We spent a week in the lovely Weald of Kent in Southeastern England this summer. We visited many castles, and the Scotney Castle was one of our favorites. The charm in this scene was in the water reflections.
Step 2
I begin painting with very loose, bold washes usually wet-into-wet. I start with the sky using a combination of Ultramarine blue, Yellow Ochre, and Cadmium Red Light for the cloud shadows. I use the same in the water below. While those are drying I drop in some light glazes on the tower stone.
Step 3
One of the most important parts of the painting is controlling the warms in the core shadow and the cools in the cast shadows. Here I start to establish that relationship and get a feel for where I’m heading with the rest of the painting.
Step 4
Keeping my value study nearby to keep me on track, I begin to refine the tower and add the shrubs in the background. This establishes my darkest darks and lightest lights at my center of interest.
Step 5
Getting increasingly darker with my pigments I continue with the rest of the middle ground and the foreground water and lily pads. The painting is almost complete, but I still have to add more detail and sharpen some edges with darker glazes of pigment.
Step 6
After the painting is complete, I put it on an easel in my studio and study it for a week or so, looking for problem areas. I want it to be completely resolved before I send it off to my photographer and the frameshop. “Scotney Tower” Image: 20″ x 28″.