Polperro Harbour Workshop Live

Have you ever looked at a sunny day and wondered how to paint the shadows without making them look dirty? A member of my painting club recently asked me how to handle light and shade on white buildings. The secret is not to use black or gray. Instead, look for the cool blues and purples that happen when the bright sun hits a surface. In this recent painting of Polperro Harbour, I wanted to show that contrast between the bright light on the roofs and the deep, cool shadows on the walls.

For this scene, I used a lot of cobalt blue, ultramarine, and a touch of lavender for the buildings. By keeping the roofs completely white, the blue walls really look like they are in the shade. The water has some nice greens in it, like viridian mixed with yellow ochre, to show the reflection of the hills and the harbour bed. I also used some warm burnt sienna for the foreground mud and the boats to balance out all those cool blue tones.

When you paint boats at low tide, it is important to connect them to the ground. I used some dark neutral tint and burnt umber under the hulls to create strong cast shadows. This grounds the boats so they do not look like they are floating in the air. A single figure on the right adds a bit of life and gives a sense of scale to the whole harbour.

This original watercolour painting is now for sale. If you would like to hang this piece of Cornwall on your wall, please contact me for more details. If you would like to learn how to paint this exact scene yourself, you can still catch up with my online workshop for May. We paint this entire scene together in just two hours, step by step.

Workshop is at:

https://www.crowdcast.io/c/timwilmotworkshopmay26