Takeaways from a 3-Day Alvaro Castagnet Watercolour Workshop

Recently I joined a watercolour workshop I’ve been longing for ages and if you are into watercolour you know that this is an artist not to miss, especially in his live workshops! I’m talking about Alvaro Castagnet, the master of expressive and bold urban scapes.

He’s not only a real talent, but he's also such a fun to be with. Three days with him have been truly enlightening and inspirational. The energy that he is able to give you does last a long time :)

Alvaro Castagnet’s Watercolour Palette & Brushes

Let's start from the colours Alvaro uses. They are by Daniel Smith:

1. Yellow Ochre

2. Burnt Sienna Light

3. Neutral Tint

4. Sepia

5. Alvaro’s Fresco Grey

6. Alvaro’s Caliente Grey

7. Titanium white

8. Mayan Orange

9. Cobalt Blue

10. Ultramarine Blue (to add pure for final touches, example people details - also, he joins it with other colours, for example cobalt for water and sepia for plants)

11. Viridian (that he joins with other colours, for example cobalt for water and sepia for plants)

12. Deep Scarlet (to add pure for final touches)

13. Pyrrol Red (to add pure for final touches)

14. Hansa Yellow Deep (to add pure for final touches)

15. Lavender (to use for shadows for examples)

16. Jaune Brilliant (Holbein brand, to add points of lights at the end as final touches)

17. Lunar Black (when he needs to make some area really dark)

Alvaro Castagnet's Daniel Smith Palette https://amzn.to/4ejF5Sj

You can find the full set on Amazon at this https://amzn.to/4ejF5Sj

Escoda brushes

The brushes number 18, 14 and 8 he uses are by Escoda and available on Amazon https://amzn.to/3T8a0su

Alvaro Castagnet's general main suggestions for a great watercolour painting:

Composition

- Take some time to look at your scene or picture and make a good composition before starting your painting

- when creating the composition don’t place in the middle the main subject of the scene

Brushstrokes

- In watercolour is very important to develop your own calligraphic marks. Mark making is a must.

- Make sure to use a variety of brushstrokes: dry, wet, wide and thin, light and dark

- Brushstrokes have to be confident, a long and neat mark, not broken and insecure

- When sketching people in watercolour make “in and out” marks, don’t do the contour of the person, don’t go into the details

Shapes & Colours

- Join the different areas of your paintings with a continuity of colour, if you neatly separate the various areas of your composition, the painting won’t appear unite but rather as a collage.

- Don’t use rainbow colours, prefer neutral and earthy tones

Alvaro Castagnet's 4 pillars for a watercolour painting

1) Form

To create dynamism, movement, rhythm, Alvaro suggests 1 big shape, a couple of medium sized shapes and multiple little shapes. Look further down at the paintings I created during his workshop.

2) Value

Consider 2 values for the light:

- the light given by the piece of paper

- a light wash of the pastel colours

and 2 values for the dark:

- 1 medium value

- really dark colour

3) Edges

Create a good balance between hard edges and soft edges

4) Colours

Look at your scene and choose the dominant colour of the painting. All the other colours will have to be in harmony with the dominant colour. In this way the painting will have a unity and won’t appear broken into a series of areas unlinked between them.

His steps for a great painting

- Arches paper Rough 300gr

- Pencil 6B to sketch out quickly the main shapes and mark the areas of maximum light

1. First layer: Understand which is the dominant colour of the picture and use this in the first layer. Sprits some water on the paper. Add a light colour wash. In this step leave some white areas if necessary and let it dry

2. Second layer: This is the layer to create shadows. Add colours of medium value. Let it dry.

3. Third layer: Add the dark value of colours and all the final touches

While you go through second and third layer, spray on hard edges if you see too many of them, remember to keep a balance between hard and soft edges.

In general if there is too much wet colour on the piece of paper he prefers to leave the paper totally flat on the table and not at an angle.

What I did during his workshop

These are some of the painting I did during the 3 days

Monza cityscape - painting from photo taken by Alvaro Castagnet (c) Stefania Boian

Monza cityscape - painting from photo taken by Alvaro Castagnet (c) Stefania Boiano