Project Details: White Door Portrait
In this post, you’ll learn how to create contrast when watercolor painting a white door.
I love painting doors. There’s something magical about entryways. Some doors could be the portal to a whole new world. I love to paint colorful doors with contrasting colors of flowers framing the door frame. But what do you do if you want to paint a white door? How do you create enough contrast in the painting?
When someone near and dear to my heart came to me and asked me to paint their grandmother’s door – which they called their happy place – I knew I was in for a challenge since the door was white. Not only was the door white, but so was the siding, the railing, and the front stoop.
How in the world do you paint white on white with watercolor? By using shadows and other contrasting elements. Challenge accepted.
Table of contents
- Project Details: White Door Portrait
- The Challenge: White Door Painting
- Project Details
- Shoppable Product Links
- YouTube Paint With Me Video
- How I Created Contrast in this White Door Watercolor Painting
- Fixing Watercolor Mistakes: When You Add Too Much Color
- Tips for Painting While the Layers Dry
- Use a Good Brush
- Removing the Tape & Finishing the Painting
The Challenge: White Door Painting
The challenge with this painting is that this door is white, the house is white, the railing is white, and the stairs are white. Creating contrast is difficult when everything is white. If you stop and look at the photo for a minute, you’ll start to notice shadows and variations of color. This wasn’t going to be a painting of a white door. No, instead, this painting would emphasize the shadows and colors to frame the door to make this door stand out.
I used several reference photos and combined them to create a whole new photo. One where I could see the welcome mat, another photo featured the bushes in the front, and a third photo featured the door details.
Project Details
(See Below for Shoppable Product Links)
5×7 Arches Watercolor Paper – Trimmed from a bigger sheet
Daniel Smith Paints
#4 & #6 Round Brushes
Flat 1″ Wash Brush
Masking Tape
Art Board
Believe it or not – despite this project being a white door with white siding, here are all the colors I used.
- Buff Titanium
- Paynes Gray
- Raw Umber
- Indigo
- Quinacridone Rose
- Sap Green
- Deep Sap green
- Amethyst Genuine
- Rose of Ultramarine
- Imperial Purple
- Raw Sienna
- Raw Sienna Light
- Yellow Ochre
- Cobalt Blue
- Phthalo Blue – Green Shade
- Dr. Ph Martin’s Iridescent Copperplate Gold
Shoppable Product Links
 | Arches Cold Press Paper Pad – 10×14
This size trims to 5x7 perfectly! >> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |  | Daniel Smith – Amethyst Genuine
>> Link to Product Amazon |
 | Daniel Smith – Buff Titanium 5 ml Tube
>> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |  | Daniel Smith – Deep Sap Green
>> Link to Product Amazon |
 | Daniel Smith – Imperial Purple
>> Link to Product Amazon |  | Daniel Smith – Indigo 5 ml Tube
>> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |
 | Daniel Smith – Payne’s Gray 5 ml Tube
>> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |  | Daniel Smith – Quinacridone Rose 5 ml Tube
>> Link to Product >> Link to Product |
 | Daniel Smith – Raw Sienna 5 ml Tube
>> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |  | Daniel Smith – Raw Sienna Light 15ml Tube
>> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |
 | Daniel Smith – Raw Umber 5 ml Tube
>> Link to Product >> Link to Product |  | Daniel Smith – Rose of Ultramarine 5 ml Tube
>> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |
 | Daniel Smith – Sap Green 5 ml Tube
>> Link to Product >> Link to Product |  | Daniel Smith – Yellow Ochre 5 ml Tube
>> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |
 | Dr. Ph Martin’s Iridescent Copperplate Gold
My go-to favorite gold paint! >> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |  | Masking Tape
>> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |
 | Princeton Heritage Pro 4050 Synthetic Sable Brushes Round 2, Round 6, Round 12, and Angle Wash 1/2″
>> Link to Product Blick.com | | Princeton Heritage Pro 4050 Synthetic Sable Brushes Round 3/0, Round 3, Round 10, and Wash 3/4″
>> Link to Product Amazon >> Link to Product Blick.com |
Do you know someone who wants to start watercoloring? Check out my Christmas Watercolor Wish List!
YouTube Paint With Me Video
Watch the YouTube Video here. I’ll show you all the techniques I used to create contrast while painting this white door and give you even more tips and tricks.
How I Created Contrast in this White Door Watercolor Painting
The trick to watercolor painting anything white is to paint the contrast in the shadows but not let the shadows take over. In the case of painting this white door, I used the shadows from both the door frame and under the siding to break up large blocks of color.
The other trick is to find and emphasize any color in the frame – use it to contrast the white. In this case, I used the flowers upfront, the doormat, the little decorations hanging outside the door, and many-layered shadows to emphasize the door frame and siding.
Base Color
Instead of pure white, I used watered-down buff titanium for the base color. It’s very soft and warm – a perfect undertone for this door. The more water you use, the softer the color – but the more color you will need to build up to create contrast.
Painting deeper tones such as (very) watered-down Indigo, Payne’s Gray, or Neutral Tint around the door frame adds more contrast and helps the door stand out from the background.
The idea is not to be too dramatic with the colors but to create layers of varying contrast as you watercolor this white door.
Keep Your Shadows Consistent
Painting in shadows is one of the best ways to create a distinction of color in this painting. Build up watercolor layers to create the right contrast around the white door and frame.
To keep your shadows consistent, decide where your light source is before you start painting. In this case, I chose the light source from the left.
TIP: If you struggle with remembering and creating consistency in your light source, add a reminder dot or sticky note to reference while painting. You could even cut out a cute little sun or light bulb and tape it to your painting board to remind you where the light is coming from.
Fixing Watercolor Mistakes: When You Add Too Much Color
One struggle throughout this process was that I kept adding too much color to the siding. I used a paper towel to dab the still-wet color away to fix the mistake.
Don’t forget that you can lift watercolor off the page if you make a mistake or need to lighten the tone slightly. This works best if the paint is non-staining. But even with staining paint, you can lift a lot of the color off the paper when the paint is still wet.
Tips for Painting While the Layers Dry
Sometimes I get too impatient with watercolor – but if you don’t let it dry between layers, you’ll end up with a muddy mess or watercolor blooms. So that’s why I flit about the painting and work on different areas at different times.
In this door painting, I used the door frame as a buffer between the areas of wet-on-wet painting so I could paint one area (like the door) and work on a different area (like the siding) while the different areas dried.
How To Know If an Area is Completely Dry
You will know if an area is completely dry if it is no longer cool to the touch. If it’s cool when you touch it, the paper isn’t yet entirely dry.
Use a Good Brush
Use a good paintbrush. Except for a wash in one place, I painted nearly everything with a #4 or #6 size brush. What’s nice with these size brushes is that you can get a pointy, fine tip to the end of the brush. You can hold so much water in the brush and get amazing blends and washes when needed.
Removing the Tape & Finishing the Painting
For the oh-so-satisfying part of removing your tape, ensure the page is 100% dry before removing the tape. If you don’t, it will tear. Remove the tape at an angle and watch those satisfying, clean lines reveal crisp edges.
I’m glad for the opportunity to paint this client’s happy place. It was such a great exercise in balancing contrast and tone for this white door portrait. I’m sorry I didn’t take better pictures of the final result. I sent off the final painting too quickly to its new owner. And I didn’t photograph it very well.
![This month’s creative challenge is all about flower names! Use these everyday floral names to expand your creativity throughout this month. Check out the challenge list below, and if you’re having trouble with creative ideas, keep reading. I have lots of ideas to share. Handlettering these words is fun if that’s what you always do. […] The post Creative Challenge: Flower Names appeared first on Chocolate Musings.](https://i0.wp.com/i.pinimg.com/564x/12/65/81/1265815e2ef10a0fd4505524fb3f0eeb.jpg?ssl=1)
Leave a Reply