Author: kitaye, Contributing Editor

This is the third and final article in the stone wall series. In the first article you were shown the steps of drawing out an arch using basic perspective. Drawing A Gothic Arch In the second article you were shown how to create a stone block wall around your arch, and to create a believable texture and shadowing with ink. Stone Wall in Pen and Ink In this article, we will paint the inked wall with transparent watercolours to create the final piece. If you have completed the previous two tutorials, you should have a wall and arch drawn out in pen and ink. Hopefully, you drew this out on a heavy Bristol or watercolour paper. If not, then you may want to create a small section of stones on a heavier paper for this tutorial.

When choosing your colours, you should think about the kind of stone you are creating and any other colours that will be in the painting. Since the previous tutorials were for creating a sandstone wall, we will continue to create the look of sandstone in this article. Sandstone comes in many colours. You can find sandstone in various shades of brown, blue, beige, cream, pink, and yellow. As my base colours, I have chosen Reeves Water Colours in Yellow Ochre, Payne's Grey, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Viridian Hue, and Bright Red. I am using a round #0 brush to apply the transparent watercolour. Your brush size will vary depending on your preferences and the size of the painting.

We are going to be using these watercolours very thinly, using lots of water to create duller, less intense colours. As you can see in the picture above, I have chosen a palette with plenty of room for adding water and for mixing larger amounts of colour.

Before beginning on the wall, it is always a good idea to test the colours out on a scrap piece of paper. This allows you to decide ahead of time how much water to add, what colours to mix, and to double check the intensity of the colour. When creating my test card, I start with a damp brush and a little colour. As I move down the paper, I add more water to the paint already on the paper. I repeat this process until I reach the palest version of the colour that I will consider using.

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