Watercolor Painting - Vitter's home in Germany

Below is a photo composite of the Vitter's farm near Bremen, Germany. Like others in the area the home and barn are in one building. We were given a tour of the home by a family member and were very impressed with how clean it all was. The living quarters are in the center section that looks like a barn. The large door in the front of this center section was like a garage leading to an entry to the house. Just to the right was a walk-through to the back yard and to the right of that were cattle. The far right section served as storage for machinery. We didn't go through the building to the left. I felt the need to paint this structure.

The problem with painting this was the distortion caused by the camera. I did some Photoshop work on the composite of four photos above. After that I did a computer drawing to get the perspective right. Because I was standing in the same spot as I photographed the four sections, there is the appearance of a curve in the road and the fence appears to recede on either side. In actuality there was no curve and the road ran straight across the front. Below is my drawing.

Finally, I did a light sketch of the layout and added details. As you probably know, the white areas of a watercolor are areas where no paint has been applied, so in a painting like this planning ahead is important. I painted in the base colors, working very lightly at first and adding darker shadows and details last. Below is my completed painting. The original was given to our family in Germany as a thank you for their generous hospitality.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the background of this painting as much as I enjoyed painting it. As stated before, this image is copyrighted and I ask that you not copy or reproduce it in any way without my express written approval.