November, 2006
This tutorial is about painting buildings using the Watercolor Brushes. I'll show you how to paint a worn looking building that you might find in an old neighborhood. There are many different ways to render buildings in watercolor and this is just one version.
Below I've created a new document 1000 px X 500 px. Using Control+R to open the rulers, I dragged two lines to use as measurements for where I'll put the building's).
I also want to use Perspective Grids to help me make sure I'm getting the perspective correct.
When you see the double arrows, you can drag up and down. The little centerline that you see can be used to drag the grid right and left.. I've put the grid at the ruler lines.
Using a medium to light gray I chose Watery Pointed Flat 30 brush to start the painting.
I'm using Freehand mode with a brush size of 30 and Opacity of 30% with Feature which set to 2.9.
I start by painting from a side to side manner to create one side of the building.
We can turn the grid off to see where we are and we're not to far yet.
Changing to a Dry Flat brush with settings shown below, I blocked in where the windows on the side will appear.
Hide the guides and use your eye to set in windows for the front using the same brush. Reduce the Opacity of the brush to 15% and block in the door.
Now change to the Wash Pointed Flat brush using the same color as we used on the front.
Paint across the windows and put more detail in the door. Change the color to medium gray and modify the opacity to 10% paint in the area to define the corner.
Changing to a lighter brown and using the Straight Line Strokes attribute, set in the edge of the building for the front.
Using the Fine Camel brush set to size 7 and the opacity to 40%, I painted in a shadows for the front windows and door using the Straight Line Stroke attribute. I then painted the edges using the same method.
At this point I chose the Eraser Dry brush set to size 4.5 and opacity to 15%, and using the Straight Line Stroke attribute, set in highlights around below the front windows, around the door, and down the one of each side window.
Changing the Wash Camel set to Brush Size of 32 and opacity to 30% and using the Straight Line Stroke attribute, I used a brick color on the front bottom of the building and then changed the color and brush size on the side to light purple.
I used the light opacity purple and used the Wash Pointed Flat brush set to 10% opacity and went over several areas building them up to make them look more worn giving the picture depth. Next I changed to black and set in the edges on the bottom.
I used Eraser Dry set to 14.3 brush size and an opacity of 15% and lightened the lower part of the each window going over them once, and also the middle section of the door as well. After that I changed to the Fine Flat brush set at 2% opacity and using the Freehand attribute and painted in the blue on the side of the building, and then added color for the door. I also added red around the door using the same brush. Next I used the Runny Airbrush and light orange and dabbed on the lower front of the building to add age. I used Eraser Salt set to 2% on the side, then I used Eraser Wet set to 10% Opacity and a brush size of 1.6 on the upper sections of the front windows. Finally I used a Watery Glazing Round set to 23% Opacity and a brush size of 8% and changed the color to black and added a dark shadow under the eves and in the corners of the front windows. At this point you can continue to add detail if you like but I wanted to give you the basis for creating this type of building.
Copyright (c) 2006, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved
