October 9, 2026

How to break down any photo before painting it in watercolor

To break down a photo for watercolor, I first spot all the different elements in it, what I call the watercolor LEGO: the sky, the sea, the sand, the rocks. Then I match each element to something I have already painted, adapt that technique to the photo, and decide which element carries the message of the painting. This is what I call the Loose Watercolor System, and it lets me paint a photo I have never seen before, with no tutorial.

How do you spot the watercolor LEGO in a photo?

When I discover a new topic, I don't see one big complicated image. I see separate building blocks. Take a random landscape photo from one of my students. Here is what I see:

• the sky first
• then the sea
• then the sand, with some wet sand
• and some rocks

Each of these is a watercolor LEGO. The watercolor sky, for example, is a LEGO I have built many times, because I have painted many skies. Once the photo is broken down into its LEGO, the question is no longer "how do I paint this landscape?" but "how have I already painted this kind of sky, this kind of sea, this kind of sand?"

How do you find a technique you have already painted?

I have painted more than 200 topics with my students, and the number grows week after week. At first, it was hard to remember all of them. Sometimes I knew a photo related to a live painting I had done with my students, but it was so complicated to land directly on the right lesson.

So I developed a tool for my personal use. It has nothing to do with artificial intelligence: it is just a database of all the topics I have painted. On the left you have the picture, and on the right you have my interpretation with no tutorial. When I see a kind of sky on a reference photo, I click on the lesson and go directly to the snippet of the live where I show my students how to do that sky.

How do you paint each element of a beach landscape?

Here is how I would paint each LEGO of this beach photo, using what I have already done.

The sky

On this photo, the sky is a kind of graded blue. I start with a lot of blue, then I add more water to make the sky a little bit brighter as I go toward the horizon line.

The sea

For the sea, I use some cobalt turquoise. I use a lot of water so that the pigment between the sea and the sand mingles together.

The dry sand and the wet sand

The dry sand is a kind of burnt sienna with burnt umber. I might think of yellow ochre, but I don't think I used it here. For the wet sand, you need to make the blue go into the sand, so that you get the feeling of wet sand on the paper.

The rocks

For the rocks, I work in 2 washes:

1. Add a first layer that represents the bright side of the rocks. Here I would use some burnt sienna, and since one rock is a little cooler, I would add more ultramarine blue to it.
2. Let this first wash dry.
3. On top of it, add a second wash with all the darker areas, the shadows.

Do you copy the technique exactly as it is?

No. You have to adapt a little bit and customize the way you did it before. On this photo, the sea is brighter than the sea in the previous topic I used as a reference. It is exactly the same for the sky: it is not as dark as the first sky I showed. The LEGO gives you the method, then you adjust it to what you see on your photo.

Why should you choose your battle?

When I got to the rocks, I had to ask myself a question: do I really want to spend much time on them? For me, this photo is more about the wet sand and the reflection of the sky on the wet sand than about the rocks.

This is exactly what I explain in the system: you need to choose your battle. Otherwise you will end up trying to do everything, and it won't work out the way you want.

It is like writing a book and putting a huge effort into describing one man who is not even the main character. You spend so much time on something less relevant than you thought that you miss the point. Watercolor is the same. You need to decide: this is the message I want to convey in this painting.

That is also why I didn't spend any time on the house, the perspective, the coast, the figures or the boat in this photo. They could matter, but I don't think they are that relevant to this topic, and I wanted to keep things simple.

FAQ

What is the Loose Watercolor System?

It is the system I use to approach any new topic. I spot all the different elements of a photo, the watercolor LEGO, then I refer to what I have already painted to know how to do each of them.

Do I need to paint every detail of the photo?

No. You need to choose your battle and decide which message you want to convey. On this beach photo, I focused on the wet sand and the reflection of the sky, and left aside the house, the figures and the boat.

How do you paint wet sand in watercolor?

You need to make the blue go into the sand so you get the feeling of wet sand on the paper. With a lot of water, the pigments of the sea and the sand mingle together.

Read next

• How to make a watercolor sky shine
• Why do my watercolors look dull?
• How to start a watercolor without a tutorial