Beginning Watercolor Homework 10/7/16 Seeing in Layers

Understanding a scene as a series of layers is mostly about assigning relative values to the major shapes.

Vecinos, Oaxaca

With only a little rounding up or down, the scene above resolves very nicely into just 3 values. Make a monochrome study of the image where every shape is either light, middle or dark in value. You can indulge, if you like, in more than one middle value. The red tile roof, for example, is lighter than the wall shadow, but both are lighter than the dark openings. One is middle value, the other is dark middle.

Use a single color, straight from the tube, not a mixture of colors. Choose one that gets dark enough to look truly dark, like the doorways in the photo. Carbazole violet would work, or pthalo, or use black, if you have it.

Here's another possibility. This one may require more than one degree of middle value, too.

Using your monochrome study as a road map, make a color version using a limited palette. Choose one red, one yellow and one blue. Make all your colors by combining those primaries.