My second day and here's the result. If you haven't figured it out yet I do love Italy with all its varied color and historic little piazzas. This image was inspired from a painting I've admired for a number of years and in many ways reminds me of a tiny piazza where some friends live in Blera, Italy.

So what have I learned from this tiny watercolor? That shadows are so important to most paintings. From vast landscapes with drifting cloud shadows to little tight spaces with tightly controlled shadows they almost always require me to study the lighting closely and watch and make sure my shadow directions aren't counterpoised. I've often looked after I've painted and realized that I have the shadows of shutters showing light from the right side of the painting and in another spot I have the light casting shadows in the opposite direction. Not only does it confuse the viewer, but me too! So this painting is really a study in shadows and without them it doesn't work.

I have noticed one little mistake: I didn't shadow the geraniums in the upper left of the painting!