A detailed drawing of the subject was produced on stretched Bockingford 250lb watercolour paper. Before any painting is started all the white parts of the painting are masked (I use the colourless masking fluid from Winsor & Newton).

Next the whole paper area is given a wash with plain water and while this is soaking into the paper I'll pre-mix the first wash colours on the palette. The first objective is to establish the sky and remove the remaining white areas of paper. A light gray& blue for the sky and as the plain water wash was drying, the base colours are loosely applied to the buildings, statue and people. Leave this to dry.

The building on the left was painted with the same series of steps or washes (see below in Stage three) as I paint the main building on the right.

1. A main wash to establish the base or background colour for the stone of the buildings (this was done for all the buildings from distant to foreground).
2. Masking fluid as used to mask the window frames and light windows then all the detail is added e.g. stonework, window reflections etc. I added this now so that the following washes would soften the edges, leaving the foreground statue and people sharper. If you require sharp detail add the detail after the shadow wash.
3. More weight and colour was added to the building but not the windows.
4. The masking fluid was removed from the windows and the whole area given a shadow wash. Followed by sharpening some details and adding the iron work in front of some windows.

The painting of the people sitting on the steps around the statue of Eros followed the same method as the buildings. The skin tones (as can be seen on the foreground figure) were painted first. This was followed by the main colours for all the clothing then details added like hair colour, fold lines in clothing, shoes. The masking fluid used before stage one was now removed from these figures and two shadow washes painted, the first adding more shape to the people and the second adding weight and creating the shadows.

The painting of the statue followed the same process as stages two and three i.e. four washes. The main objective was to get the contrast between statue and sky and statue and buildings correct. Some lifting out was done on the left side of the statue to create the fine mist spray from the small fountain.

The final elements to be painted include the foreground figures (following the same techniques as before) and the shadows. I used three washes for the shadow and then some softening of the edges, carried out as required e.g. around the legs of the foreground figure.