Works well with warm and cool complements.

(1)TEA: Fill the big shapes with local color, (2)MILK: The cast shadows go on top, (3)HONEY: Small touches of opaque darks High Key (light) shapes can also PULL FOCUS wet edge. Use to add color variation to shadow shapes.
Paint in three passes of value: Light, Middle and Dark. Working Larger-to-Smaller, Wetter-to-Dryer will ‘bloom color’ into the shape but NOT break the
Start with a clean pencil drawing that captures the shadow shapes you’ll use later Touch a wet area with a pigment loaded brush, it
CHARGING IN
olor Sketching Cheat Sheet : Ma A Waterc
er.com rc Taro Holmes : CitizenSketch
H
TE A, M I L K ,
Sketch: Shadow Shapes

H O N E Y
Pigment will be drawn into the clean water.
T T the edge by placing clear water NEXT to the shape.
Make a wet-on-dry hard edged shape, then PULL
possible shapes. Ideally just Sky, Ground, Subject. EDGE PULLING
THREE BIG SHAPES: Simplify down to the fewest
PULL FOCUS : Detail + Contrast
M
SIMPLIFY
Details: Wet-on-Dry Silhouette: Wet-in-Wet highest contrast should cluster around the focal point. Fade towards edges.
GRADIENT OF INTEREST: Greatest density of detail, intensity of color, and
T WET-IN-WET, Three big shapes, Transparent washes, Sky in one go,
BIG SHAPES 100/50/25 Rule
Aim for lightest local color, Remember: Wet washes dry lighter.
It can take a couple of Each pass takes half the
hours to do a detailed
piece like this on location. time, and covers half
WET the surface area
M
as the pass
before. MILK
H WET-ON-DRY, Only touch
shadow shapes, 100/50/25,
TEA Foliage often quite dark,
If you want to work faster, try Reserve Lights: Remember
sketching in Washable Ink. spend
You get darks instantly the lace dress, Charge-in
by melting the half T for color variation, Pull
ink line Light
your Dry edges to sculpt form.
into the STOP! Let
Tea wash.
But! It is a bit
time
‘unpredictable’ :) G
And remember: DRAWIN HONEY
OPAQUE MIX, Look for contact shadows,
TMH is only a guideline. the painting M
Small Only touch darkest darks, Time for the tiny brush,
Once you’ve mastered the process, never gets Shadow Like an ink drawing, Cluster detail around
try painting Direct-to-Color (skip the DRY
line drawing entirely - go right to the big better than focal areas for Gradient of Interest. Consider
shapes). Or use more than three passes.
the drawing H Details white gouache for recovered lights.
Tea it twice to get richer color. Or change the Dark
order, start with darks. Play with it! Find out more in: “The Urban Sketcher: Techniques for Seeing and Drawing on Location” from North Light Books