Rain on the pavement, the frenetic energy of busy people, taxis flying by…there’s so much inspiration to be found in a city scene. In this watercolor painting demonstration, the star of the show is a wet sidewalk reflecting vibrant neon lights. Follow along with acclaimed artist Paul Jackson and learn how to bring this nighttime cityscape to bustling life!
Photo Reference, Drawing, and Sketching with Paint
Photo Reference
Paul says: “Nighttime in the city is one of my favorite places to look for interesting stuff to paint. I find inspiration just about everywhere, but it’s the city lights that really catch my attention: lots of neon, different colors, especially when they’re reflected in a rainy sidewalk.”
Initial Drawing
Paul says: “In the drawing, I got really, really detailed and basically just sketched an outline around all the lights and the various perspective lines and shapes. However, I’ve changed from the reference. You’ll notice that [instead of] the ambiguous image of people here, I’ve…changed to a focal point…a person with an umbrella taking a picture with an iPhone. In this composition, I liked the police officer writing the girl a ticket and the car, [and] I liked some of the figures on the sidewalk, but where the focal point piece was, I thought it needed to change a little bit.”
Paul transfers his drawing to watercolor paper using a sheet of carbon paper and a pencil before moving on to the next step.
Sketch in Paint
Paul says: “I’m going to be sketching with paint to create this composition with just a light wash of a neutral, purple color that will disappear under all of the rest of the painting later. This will help me establish where my figures are going to go on the sidewalk. With my pencil drawing, I really didn’t put that much down because I don’t want to limit myself. I want to be able to create and go on the fly with this painting. I also don’t want to have too much graphite on the paper to smear around.”
Masking and Underpainting
Marking the Masking
Paul says: “I’m going to put masking fluid in quite a few places on this reference. In fact, I’ve taken a back and white Xerox of my photo and I’ve shown you all of the places I’m going to put masking fluid on here. It’s basically all of the lights in the background and a few of these highlight spots that happen through the pavement. If I drip a little of this masking fluid on the pavement, it’s okay, because there’s a lot of texture in this pavement that we get to work with. In fact, usually I’ll take the masking fluid, fill my brush completely up with it, and I’ll spatter it just a bit in the foreground.”
Working the Underpainting
Paul says: “My masking fluid is all dry now, so we’re going to put a big wash of water over this and drop in some of this soft color, all the color reflections coming from the lights above. This is probably my favorite part of this painting. Wet in wet is not quite as controllable as wet on dry, but if you balance the water just right and make this really even, you can make this work.”
“Thin [the paint] out with lots and lots of water. I’m going to take my full brush and take about half the paint out, so that it’s a half full brush. It’s pointed and it’s not flat on the end. It’s not dripping out either. It’s just enough liquid to make this mark without flooding the paper with a big puddle.”
Boosting Color and Starting the Background
Boosting Color
Paul says: “My paper’s completely dry now, and I’m starting to remove a little bit of masking fluid. I took my signature off, and I’ve got a couple of these lines in the pavement I need to go ahead and remove. They’re going to leave a wonderful little lighter version of themselves underneath, but they’re no longer going to resist the water and paint, so these will get painted over and blended in a little bit. You don’t want them all to stand out. I do want to leave a few of them on, so I’m sort of selectively taking them off.”
“Let’s do one more layer of big wet in wet wash…still getting some wonderful soft edges because I’ve got plenty of liquid on my paper. Those little soft edges really make this look like wet pavement.”
Underpainting the Background
Paul says: “Let’s spin our painting upside down now and start working from the top down. You always want to orient your paper so that it’s easiest for you to make the marks that you want. If you have a problem seeing the image upside down, turn your reference upside down. That makes it easy. Honestly, painting upside down is actually pretty good for you, because you’re really just looking at the abstract shapes rather than trying to paint what you think a human being should look like. Paint the shapes that you see instead and you’ll have a lot better results.”
Details, Details
Detailing Figures
Paul says: “It’s really ambiguous. It’s very hard to tell what’s going on with some of these folks because they’re in motion. It’s very wet and rainy and not all that focused on these fellows. Which is okay: you don’t really want to focus on these guys. Still, they’re part of the composition, so you have to consider every element of your composition, but you also want to consider what their scale is and what their purpose is in the frame of the picture. This girl [with the umbrella], her purpose is to draw your eye. I’m going to keep putting darker and darker pigment on her and modeling her, giving her more detail than most of the other characters in here, simply because I want her to stand out.”
Detailing Cars
Paul says: “Let’s throw those crescendo darks into our police officer here, just on the darkest parts of his uniform where his shadow is creating the edge [and] those tires on that car. Just doing a little bit of calligraphy with a small brush and some really dark paint. Most of this is just indigo [with] a little bit of violet in it. These are those crescendos that are going to make this really leap out.”
Final Adjustments
The Final Painting
Paul says: “With the tape off, it really looks fantastic. I got the whole vibrant energy of the city all in one little piece of paper. I got some really great implications of motion and reflection and light, a lot of chaos with the people going on. I really like the fact that I didn’t focus too hard on all the details. It made it a lot more fun to do this piece. I got to do all the fun stuff, like spattering and spraying and doing all the wet in wet. Wet in wet is kind of tricky, but honestly it’s probably the most fun and the most visual thing about watercolor, and it’s really the technique that says ‘watercolor.’ When you see wet in wet in it, that gradation, that beautiful smooth flow…in watercolor, we can do that easier than pretty much any medium.”
Want more like this watercolor painting demonstration from Paul Jackson? Check out these videos!
The Color of Sunset
The Illusion of Glass
New Perspectives in the Landscape
About the Artist
An accomplished watercolorist, Paul Jackson travels the world painting a variety of subjects, including still lifes, cityscapes, landscapes, and more. With awards and exhibitions across the U.S. and internationally, Paul is a regular watercolor enthusiast and author of two books, including Painting Spectacular Light Effects in Watercolor from North Light Books. Honored as a signature member of the American Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society, and recognized as an Honor Member of the Missouri Watercolor Society, Paul is always growing in his craft. Visit PaulJackson.com to find out more about Paul and his artwork.
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