Advancing with Watercolor - The Textures of Tuscany "The Piazza"

Week 5- a story

We continue in the city of Firenze this week This morning we traveled across the Arno to the Basilica Spirito Santo. A wonderful piazza that is lively with vendors and Florentines out shopping on a warm Sunday.

After working and walking about I find "The Fascinator" a vendor selling hats she has made. The location of her table is just under a monument to Cosimo Ridolfi and he seems interested in whats going on at her table too. I use this scene to open the door just a little to Composition

Composition

Behind any great image is a well thought out composition. If you look at the first plate  the composition rests on a cross - the intersection of the major vertical and the major horizontal - the connected figures form my horizontal - as i fine tune my painting I always keeep a sort of hiarchy with this area being the area of interest.

Notan

The Notan is a VERY simplified and Stylized sketch that uses Black and white to design the shapes - forcing me to choose what is absolutely nessecary and what is supportive about the composition

The Tonal Study

The tonal study eliminates the need to replicate all the colors and allows me to organize my painting into lights and darks. These lights and darks can be modulated for effect and the simple approach helps greatly when facing this complex composition