How to Paint an Austrian Castle in Watercolour using only 2 Colours

Good morning, afternoon or evening, wherever you are. I'm Paul Clark. Welcome to my studio. So, what have I got for you lovely lot today? Well, we're going to take another trip around the world in my Around the World in Watercolour series. Today we're going to visit the beautiful country of Austria. More of why we're going to Austria later. So, we're going to be painting this lovely little Austrian castle in a lake. And we're going to be doing it in just two colours, Cobalt Blue and Burnt Sienna. So, come and join me and we'll paint this step by step together. So, just before we start, I've got a really exciting announcement of a wonderful trip that we've got planned for June 2025 to the beautiful Austria. So, I've got a short video coming up. It's only just over a minute long with full details of this wonderful trip. It's been organised by the lovely people at Harmony Voyages who we've been working with. Full details you'll find in the description below. Just trying to ignore the guy with the guitar. So, we're off to the beautiful country of Austria hosting a luxury three location painting retreat next June 2025. Starting with a two night stay in Vienna where we will paint as well as attend the famous Spanish riding school and a renowned Viennese classical music concert. Then a short coach journey to our next hotel for three nights to savour the delights of the River Danube. Visiting the stunning hotel at Dernstein and staying in the beautiful town of Krems. This will include a river cruise with plenty of opportunities to paint both outdoors and in a classroom situation. The next hotel is in the Lake District of Austria enabling us to take you high into the mountains and through pretty little villages nestled on the edge of the lakes. Lots of time for painting, sketching and tuition as well as laughter along the way. This trip of a lifetime is also open to non-painting partners but please be aware there are limited spaces available. So, please take a look at the Harmony Voyages website or link in the description below for full details. And who knows, if you're unlucky enough, you may get me singing on the coach my full repertoire of songs from The Sound of Music. OK, so for today's materials. My paper is some ash. It's a cold press finish, £300. Nice and thick, it won't need stretching but of course any decent watercolour paper will do. My colours today. It's a very limited palette, just two. I'm using some Cobalt Blue and some Burnt Sienna and for my brushes I have a large Hake brush and for my range a 3.25 inch flat, number 12 and a number 6 round and of course my trusty number 3 rigger. So here's the thing about these two particular colours. Just by adding in a touch of Burnt Sienna into your Cobalt Blue will give you beautiful greys and the more you add, the warmer the grey becomes. And just keep adding the Burnt Sienna and you get some lovely deep rich browns. So here's the stunning photo reference which I got from Pixabay and it's of the Schlossort Castle which is probably not how you pronounce it. And here's my pencil sketch which is a little tricky, especially the castle. So as always, this is free to download from my website. I'll link in the description below. And the painting shape, a little unusual today, being approximately 14 by 8 inches. Off we go and using my Hake brush wetting the complete top side of the painting with clean water then dropping in with my flat brush some Cobalt Blue trying to get a graduated fade as I move towards the bottom. So just to make sure I keep the snowy parts of these mountains white I'm just dabbing out with the tissue some of the blue which is crept into these mountains here. Now for these distant mountains and I'm using Cobalt Blue and my No. 6 brush and I'm using the dry brush technique keeping it brushed nice and flat to the paper but also painting in some conventional wet-in-wet brush strokes. And this is where you'll definitely need a cold press or a rough textured watercolour paper. And you can see from the reference photo above I'm not trying to match the colours of the original. I'm using a Cobalt Blue which is a much warmer blue. Now for those of you who regularly follow my videos know that I like to add in music which is relevant to the subject that I'm painting. So I searched for traditional Austrian folk music and this is what I found. Not sure it's going to work but here's about 10 seconds for you. See what I mean? That's better. Next I want to get that lovely soft graduated blend in the mountains. So I'm using clean water and my Harke brush wetting down to the horizon line and then using my No. 12 brush and some Cobalt Blue. And of course I don't need to tell you what colours I'm using because as you know I'm only using the two Cobalt Blue and Burnt Sienna. And exactly the same process over on this side just making sure that it's nice and light where the mountains meet the water. Now I've let that dry then I'm painting in with a very watery wash this little mountain which is just slightly further forward. Okay so now it's time for the castle and I'm using my No. 12 brush and a mix of Cobalt Blue with just a little touch of the Burnt Sienna just to grey it up slightly. And this is for all the shadow sides. In fact this whole side is in shadow so I'm just going to paint over everything. Next for the trees and I'm using my No. 6 brush again and the dry brush technique and this is a roughly 50-50 mix of the two colours. So now we need to let this totally dry so it's a perfect time for a short break and what about a peach schnapps. Next for some fine details on the trees I'm using my trusty No. 3 rigger. Now I'm not putting too much details in these trees remember these are fairly far in the distance. Next the tricky part and this onion dome steeple. Now I'm using my No. 6 brush and being very slow and careful with this making sure I get the two sides as symmetrical as possible. Just make sure you don't sneeze. Now I'm never going to be able to paint this exactly the same as the original so I'm just putting my own interpretation on it. Here just lifting out a subtle highlight with a damp brush. Now it is fairly important you try and get the two sides of this onion dome the same otherwise it's just going to look lopsided. These little windows one simple stroke if you can. Now you do need a steady hand for this but there's nothing wrong with having a little practice on some scrap paper first. Now for the roof still using my No. 6 brush there's definitely a lighter value where the sun is hitting it on the left. And just using a slightly more concentrated wash here. Now I'm letting this totally dry then I'm coming back with my No. 6 brush and the same colour mix and starting to put in some of the details on the castle. I just love these diagonal cast shadows coming across the roof. And hopefully you can see that lovely granulation I'm getting from this mix as the heavier pigments of the blue slightly separates and sinks to the bottom of the texture of the paper giving that gorgeous granular effect. These little structures here look very much like their boat sheds so I'm just painting these in a fairly simple flat wash. Just layering on here some darker value on top of the wash which has now dried. No, stop that. Better. I usually find it's these lovely small details towards the end that really begin to bring your painting together. Now for the little foot bridge to the castle and it really is quite a complicated array of struts and pillars so I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible but still put in a little bit of detail. Now it's time to paint in the lake. Big Hargate brush again and I'm wetting all this bottom section. Obviously Cobalt Blue again and I'm using my flat brush getting this blue in as quickly as possible. And I'm strengthening the consistency here of the blue just to get a few subtle ripples in the water. Now looking at the original reference photo because there is some slight movement in the water there is very little reflection from the castle but I'm going to suggest a much flatter lake and paint in some lovely wet-in-wet reflections. So I'm tilting my board to an angle of about 30 degrees using that same colour and painting in some vertical stripes directly below the dark values of the castle and a flat brush is just perfect for this. And also keeping the board at that angle will just help the paint the flow down a bit. So I've lost a little definition here where I re-wet the paper so I'm coming back with my number six brush and just putting in those details back on top. Now there could also be a little reflection in the water from the foot bridge but I'm not going to bother because it may be just too slight. Next with a little touch of watery blue and my number six brush I'm just putting in only in the foreground here just the suggestion of a little bit of movement in the water always trying to get a nice tapered end to each brush stroke. That's enough. Don't overdo it Paul. Oops! You can see I've signed it didn't film it and haven't even finished it yet. So final touches using my magic scalpel okay it's just a cheap craft knife and I'm just going to scratch in a few little highlights where the light is glistening in the water. There we go. All done. I'll just pretend I'm signing it again. And this one in about two and a half hours. Well I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did and you'll give it a go. Definitely worth trying just using two colours as it's a great lesson in learning to mix. And don't forget for all details of our holidays workshops and events I'll link in the description below. And in the meantime please don't forget to like subscribe if you haven't already or leave a comment. I do read every single one can't always reply to them all and music again. Anyway I'll see you again next week for another Watercolour Wednesday. Bye for now.