How to Paint The City Gate in Watercolor

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b Class Description

Step into the charm of old-world architecture and city life in this atmospheric watercolor class. “Painting a City Gate Scene” teaches you how to capture the essence of ancient structures blending into modern urban life—all with expressive, accessible techniques perfect for watercolor.

During the Class You Will Learn:

🌫️ Moody Skies: How to paint dramatic grey skies that set the tone and mood of the scene.
🏙️ Simplified Architecture: Techniques for suggesting complex city buildings without overworking the details.
🚶‍♀️ City Figures: How to add small but effective figures that bring the streets to life and give scale to your scene.
📐 Vertical Perspective: Step-by-step guidance on correcting vertical perspective to keep your buildings standing tall and straight.

This class is perfect for beginner to intermediate watercolor artists looking to develop their skills in landscape, architecture, and cityscape painting.

Join now and capture the timeless beauty of the old city gates in watercolor!

 You Will Need

Watercolor Paper
Set of pan or tube paints
Set of watercolor brushes
Rigger brush
HB Pencil & soft eraser
Masking fluid
Soft lint free cloth
Paper towel

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Short Class Video

Class Tutorial

Paint the background

In order to get contrast for the light buildings we need to darken the sky slightly with a Blue/Purple mix.

Carefully go around the towers and then a bit lighter towards the horizon. Thoroughly dry the sky before proceeding with the buildings.

Make a dark Brown mix with Cadmium Orange and Blue. Start on the left tower being careful not to paint into the window area. Paint vertical strokes to simulate the height of the towers.

The righthand tower will have some sun shining on it. Add the dark shadow. Also bring some deeper shadow on the left tower.

Paint the roof

For the conical roofs take Cadmium Red and add some Blue into it. Carefully paint it in and with a damp brush lift out the sunlit side. With slightly more Red into the mix for the brighter sun, paint the other roof.

Darken the shadow side. Also lift the highlight on the roof with a damp brush. Add the dark shadow under the roofs. Add some Orange to the sunlit area.

Paint the windows

With a dark mix, paint in the small windows in the towers and paint in the flag posts.

Paint the buildings

Mix up alight Blue/Purple and paint the buildings in shadow.

With a light Yellow Ochre begin the buildings in sunlight. Block them in lightly at first.

With some of the dark mix begin adding the very dark areas.

Paint the windows

With a small flat brush start adding the windows. Don’t try and count them.. Just give an impression of them. Darken them up as they come closer.

Paint the various tonal ranges of the building faces.

Paint the distant buildings

Carry on now with the distant buildings. They will all be lighter in value than the nearer buildings.

Now we can begin outlining the ridges, etc, of the buildings and working on the windows and doors at ground level.

Lightly block in the building in shadow that is on the right as well as on the left side. With various tones of the tower roof, paint the other roofs of the nearer buildings.

Paint the door

Add some Yellow Ochre for the sunlit door in the archway. Add more windows and outline the archway shadows.

Paint the roadway

Paint in the building shadows on the ground and a light Blue/Purple for the street. Darken up the foreground and fade out to give the impression of distance.

Complete the bottom of the righthand tower and the add more windows.

Paint the people

With a small round brush add the impression of people. Just a dot and a short stroke will do. Not too dark for those in the distance.

Add the two talking in the arcway and the larger figure on the right, this time with some colour. Lift out the reflection. Don’t paint detail!

Paint the plants

With some Green, add the plants at the base of the towers. Add some Yellow, straight out the tube, for the highlights. Continue with the shadows of the buildings and also for the figures.