Art 107: Drawing Rooftops with Ink and Very Simple Watercolor

A dreamy view from Croatia--and a zoom coming soon!

Let’s get together for a zoom!

Samantha Dion Baker invited me to join her in a live zoom on Monday, Nov 10 at 1 Pacific/4 Eastern, where we will chat and draw on the topic of her recent post, drawing what doesn’t seem worth drawing. This is for paid subscribers only, so that’s you! Grab the link in our subscriber-only chat, right here.

I’m drawing this from a photo sent to me by Andrea, from her vacation in Croatia. I’ll be mailing the original to her this week. I love these types of rooftop views, but they can be daunting to tackle.

For this one, I decided that I should start with ink, and use a very simple color scheme for watercolor. The only colors I used here are:

• Cobalt teal blue and a bit of phthalo turquoise for the sky

• Phthalo blue (cobalt blue or prussian blue would work, too) for the water, maybe mixed with some sky color

• A mix of reds and oranges for the rooftops—doesn’t really matter what you use

• A wash of New Gamboge (Naples yellow would be great too) across the whole scene for the lightest areas