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As we enter the holiday season, I hope this finds you anticipating good times with family and friends.

I have always admired the beautiful cityscapes produced by contemporary watercolor painters like Thomas Schaller and Paul Jackson.

My own attempts, however, have been dismal failures. They look stiff and uninteresting. Dull. Boring, even. I had always been so discouraged by my efforts that I had given up trying.

Recently, I had the opportunity to watch a critique by Thomas Schaller.

While I have viewed his recent DVD, I never understood exactly what he did to make his work so much more dynamic than mine until I saw the way he
critiqued the paintings sent in by other artists.

I watched how he chose an area that he wanted to emphasize as his focal point. He then altered the pattern of light so that he had a light area, a mid-tone area and a dark area. Each value was chosen to point the way to the focal point.

I've heard this over and over from various teachers, but I never truly understood it until I saw how changing the values of these already completed paintings improved them and brought them to life.

I decided that I would make another attempt using the value technique and see whether I could improve on past efforts.

First, I decided which areas I wanted to make very light. In the case of this painting, I wanted the light to be coming from behind the figures in the tunnel.

I decided to use atmospheric perspective to make the far wall of the Colosseum appear distant, and also to provide contrast to the darkest area that leads the eye to the focus of the painting.

I decided to use atmospheric perspective to make the far wall of the Colosseum appear distant, and also to provide contrast to the darkest area that leads the eye to the focus of the painting.

Next I painted the mid-values. This immediately separated the mids from the lightest values and made them appear closer.

Finally, I was ready to add the darkest darks. The tunnel surrounds the rest of the painting and draws the viewer's eye to the figures just exiting the tunnel.

I considered calling the piece, "Out of the Vomitorium" but it seemed like too much of an inside joke, so I went with Gateway to Ancient Rome.

What do you think? Did I accomplish my goal of making a cityscape interesting?

Watercolor Tip of the Month:

Do you struggle with dirty paper from the graphite in your pencil or your "carbon" paper? As soon as you wet the paper the graphite is set on your paper and it is very difficult to remove.

To avoid this problem, roll your kneaded eraser into a ball or a cylinder shape and roll it over your lines, particularly in the areas where you see loose graphite or especially dark lines. The eraser will pick up the graphite dust, preventing it from smearing onto the clean paper.

I hope you have enjoyed this edition of my newsletter, and I wish you the happiest of holidays, filled with family, friends, and all those things that make the holidays joyful.

Until next time,