Postcard Step-by-Step

I recently finished the fifth postcard in my series of Adana, Turkey, this one depicting a historic stone bridge in the city.

It's name is Adana Taş Köprü, meaning stone bridge, and it spans the Seyhan River. Built in the 4th century A.D. by the Romans, it is one of the oldest bridges still in use. In fact, up until the early 2000's, it was still open to vehicle traffic.

One part of this painting that I really enjoyed was the water. I had never really done water with watercolors before, but I loved creating the shimmering effect and adding so many different colors to the reflections.

I started with a sketch of the scene, and then I painted in the sky, darkening the blue layer by layer. I filled in a base color of blue for the water, leaving the area farther in the back whiter. I added some darker blue strokes mostly towards the bottom and beneath the bridge. Then I used some brown strokes for the reflections of the buildings and the bridge. I painted in the underside of the bridge with a very dark brown, and then I went on to paint the buildings in the background. I mostly used blue, tan, and gray for this. Then I filled in the trees behind the bridge and the little bits of grass showing through the arches of the bridge.

After that, I worked on the bridge, using little brown and black strokes to resemble a stone texture. Then to warm it up a bit and to stand out more against the cool blue water, I added a brownish-orange to the bridge. I then went in and added this brownish-orange to the reflections in the water, and I also darkened up some of the reflections towards the bottom and from the buildings. Lastly, I painted the sidewalk on the left side with brown and black, and the bushes poking out from the side were the last to be painted with greens, black, and a little bit of brownish-orange.

With that, I finished my fifth postcard, and I'm planning on doing one more to finish up the series. Keep a lookout for it!