WATERCOLOUR LANDSCAPES & MARITIMES

LA CURE GOURMANDE: Watercolour tutorial of a french Sweets Shop.

Posted on by Maria Balcells

La Cure Gourmande is an over 100 years old fabric of sweets, chocolates, and cookies…but the shop is not that old. It was the idea of the enterprise to build a chain of shops around the country where people can buy the products that they create, with products and boxes inspired by the vintage style of that time.

The truth is that is so well done that when you go in you believe to be in another time and the sweets are delicious,

As you can see, I liked it enough to dedicate some of my time and painted it. If you decide to paint it as well, I can recommend you to paint the shadows, not one-to-one as in my work, but take the idea of the light coming from the right side and going through the foliage of the trees.

Let's get started

MATERIALS:

PAPER:

  • Watercolours paper 300 grams paper 42 x 56 cm – 16” x 22″ approx.

BRUSHES:

  • Round good pointed numbers 2, 6, and 12.

COLOURS:

  • Transparent Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Gamboge, Cadmium Orange (if you are using rough paper) Burnt Sienna and Sepia, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Paynes Grey, Cobalt Blue, Cobalt Turquoise, and Chinese white.

OTHER MATERIALS:

  • Saral transfer paper
  • Kitchen paper or toilet paper to lift colours and dry.
  • Painters Tape
  • A Spry bottle with clean water to lift the colour

STEP 1:

  • Copy and transfer your colours to your watercolours paper.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 1
La Cure Gourmande. Step 1

STEP 2:

  • Paint the yellow walls alternating Yellow Ochre and transparent yellow. Before the colours are dry, lift some colour suggesting light spots in a diagonal.

 

LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 2
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 2

 

STEP 3:

  • Paint on the same way the walls of the shop using Gamboge instead of Transparent Yellow and Yellow Ochre.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 3
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 3

STEP 4:

  1. Mix some Cobalt Turquoise with Paynes Grey and paint the first wash on the windows and windows shutters.
  2. Paint the first wash on the walls of the shop on the right side also with a very light mixture of cobalt turquoise and Paynes Grey as well.
  3. Paint the glasses from the show windows also with a very light and pale wash of grey-blue. Let all dry.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 4
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 4

STEP 5:

  • Take some kitchen paper and tape and protect all the painted areas.
  • Wet the entire foreground and quickly pain some strokes of transparent yellow, in a zigzag form, then red (permanent Crimson) and also a bit of new Gamboge. Do the same on the inside of the shop and let the colours blend into each other but not get mixed so that you have only one colour.
  • While the paper is stills moist and shining, splatter some yellow,  red, and cobalt on the floor.
  • Let all dry.

 

LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 5
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 5

STEP 6:

  1. Paint the left door with Burnt Sienna and Sepia.
  2. Paint the arch on top of the window of the door with Yellow Ochre, then paint the decoration of the window with Paynes Grey. Allow drying.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 6
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 6

STEP 7:

  1. Paint the shop on the right side with a medium value to a light mixture of Cobalt Blue and Paynes Grey.
  2. Paint the awning with Cobalt turquoise. Leave on the left side an irregular white space as in the photo.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 7
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 7

STEP 8:

  1. With some tape, protect the upper level of the balconies and the top side of the shop and paint with vertical dry brush strokes, some suggested dirty wall paint with a variation of colours. A muddy Ochre (Yellow Ochre + Paynes Grey), Sienna and Raw Sienna, Greens mixed from Transparent yellow, Paynes Grey + Cobalt Blue.
  2. Paint all horizontal lines with a thin interrupted brushstroke of varied dark values colours. Let all dry.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 8
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 8

STEP 9:

  1. Paint the windows shutters with a light mixture of Cobalt blue, Cobalt turquoise, and Paynes Grey. Lift a bit of colour occasionally with a tissue at some points. Let dry.
  2. Paint the windows with Winsor blue and Paynes Grey.
  3. Paint the shadows of the upper part walls with the earth colours; Yellow Ochre, Raw and Burnt Sienna add some green to it (Transparent yellow and Paynes Grey).
  4. Paint the shadows of the windows with Cobalt blue and a touch of Paynes Grey
  5. Allow drying.
  6. Take the Spray bottle with clean water and lift some colour following the same direction as the shadows till the paper is nearly white. Let dry your paper completely.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 9
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 8

STEP 10:

  • Paint the iron of the balcony with Paynes Grey, before it dries lift some colour with a moist flat brush suggesting the light coming through the foliage of the trees.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 10
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 10

STEP 11:

  1. Paint the Yellows on the Main shop with Cadmium Orange, Transparent Yellow, and Gamboge. For the dark lines, you may use raw sienna mixed with a bit of blue and red.
  2. Paint the decorations of the right window and the light reflections with light cobalt blue and transparent yellow. Do not mix the colours; let them blend on the paper.
  3. Let all dry thoroughly. The success of this painting is based on the transparency of the colours. You have to give them time to settle down into the paper, layer by layer.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 11
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 11

STEP 12:

  1. Now is the moment to paint the details. Paint the name of the shop window, with Permanent Alizarin Crimson varying it on its values and changing a bit the colour by adding some blue or yellow.
  2. The inside of the shop is all suggested. No realistic lines have been painted. You may copy mines or draw on your own some suggested figures and decorations.
  3. Paint the red poster of the front window as in the picture with dark reds as Permanent Alizarin Crimson. So as you feel but keep it simple, we want to avoid keeping the center of the painting as a focal point of the picture.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 12
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 12

 

STEP 13:

  1. Let all dry thoroughly and then paint some suggest shadows on the main window following the same direction as all the other ones.
  2. Paint some small suggested decoration on the right side shop.
  3. Paint also with Chinese White the white decorations from the big red poster on the main window,
  4. Let all dry and do not touch any more. If you need more details, they can be done at the end of the painting.
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 13
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 13

STEP 14:

  1. Paint the lines and front side of the sidewalk with a light Paynes grey add some more colour on the edge while the paper is dry and let it dry.
  2. Paint the rest of the shadows, taking care to complement hard with soft edges.
  3. Paint some suggested pavement stones but not all.
  4. Let all dry and evaluate the painting and ready! 🙂
LA CURE GOURMANDE. Watercolour Street landscape tutorial. Step 14
LA CURE GOURMANDE Step 14

 

 

Maria Balcells

I am a self-taught artist with loving art for a long. In 2010, I began working seriously with watercolours, although I started and discovered this wonderful medium some years before. Occasionally, I paint with oils.