Cabo Cliffs at Sunset

My approach to composing a watercolor painting with the Cabo coastline as inspiration

Jan 30, 2025

Watercolor Painting Inspiration
Approach and Process
Tools
Sketching
Color Palette
Painting Techniques
The Final Piece
Final Thoughts

Watercolor Painting Inspiration

Hi there! Here’s my latest watercolor painting. This post provides a deep dive into how I approached composing the painting, which tools I used, and some techniques to bring the painting to life.

This landscape painting was inspired by a trip to Los Cabos, Mexico late last year. I visited the cliffs at Pedregal and was inspired by the rugged beauty of the coastline. When looking out at the Pacific ocean, it conveys this feeling of being dwarfed in comparison to the waves stretching west. Rolling waves and rip currents convey the fierce beauty of the Baja coastline. I sought to capture this via the scale of the mountains and the sunset over the expansive ocean.

Take a read through and let me know what you think!

Watercolor Painting Techniques: Approach and Process

Tools

For this 30"x40" watercolor painting, I used:

Canvas: Cold press 140 lb. paper (Blick Art)
Brushes: 1/2” and 1” flats, No. 8 and No. 10 rounds, and rigger brush
Paints: Utrecht, Windsor Newton Cotman collection, and DaVinci
Masking Fluid

Sketch It Out

Here is the pre-work for the painting. The top sketch captures the main shapes and proportions. The bottom sketch captures the tones (light, mid, dark), as well as the colors. This is where it’s important to do your planning for the painting to determine overall composition when you overlay it on the canvas!

Watercolor Painting Color Palette

Color Philosophy: Blue, red, and yellow were the base colors, with shades of brown and grey for the cliffs. I focused on expanding the color palette via purples by mixing different combinations of blues with the permanent rose.

Sky: Aerolin, Permanent Rose, Cobalt Blue
Rocks: Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue, Grey
Sea: Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue, Violet, Blue-Green
Diners: Above colors, Ivory black - for final details
Mixes: Violet (Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue, Permanent Rose), Blue-Green (Cobalt Blue and Aerolin), Grey (Cobalt Blue, Violet, Burnt Sienna)

Impressionist Watercolor Landscape Painting: Techniques

Diners:

Masking fluid: I started by saving the canvas where the diners are with masking fluid. This allows me to paint over the area. Once dry, the masking fluid can be gently scrubbed off, preserving the white of the canvas.

Sky and cliffs:

I loosely followed the technique from a painting I did a couple of years ago, which captures rocky cliffs and the ocean (see post titled ‘Ocean Scapes’, painting 2 titled ‘Reflections in the Sand’). This is a technique I self taught myself following the style of painter Arnold Lowrey, who lives in Wales UK. If you’re interested in trying yourself, I highly recommend his handbook, ’Sea and Sky in Watercolor’.
My strategy was to emphasize the main shapes - the cliffs and diners. I strove to highlight the dining space with some white space and lighter tone.
For the nitty gritty on the techinques:
- Sky:
  - The sky was painted wet-on-wet to create the effect of the pale, luminous glow of the setting sun. This contrasts with the darker cliff edge as the sun sets behind it.
  - The hazy low-hanging clouds were painted in purples and blue.
- Cliffs
  - The cliffs were laid in with burnt sienna, raw sienna, and Prussian blue. Emphasis on the edge of the cliff, letting the nearside cliff emerge through more loosely painting wet-on-wet.
  - I focused on loading darker paints on the cliff edge to bring it into relief, while painting more loosely with more wet-on-wet broad strokes for the nearside cliff. This creates the impression of the cliff fading into the shadows as your gaze moves from left to right.
  - Additional detail was added in the next round to further highlight the cliff detail and add interesting elements - Scroll down to see the final version!

Sea
- Ripples were added using grey and blue-green to create perspective
Diners
- I added a purple and blue floor to the dining space to capture the shadows cast by the cliffs, then added light details on the diners. I took an Impressionist approach of conveying the light conversation and atmosphere of the diners through the use of shapes and colors to convey the mood.

And that covers it! Scroll down to see the final piece.

Original Piece - Cabo Cliffs at Sunset

’Cabo Cliffs at Sunset’

30”x40”

Watercolor

ARR 2024

Zoomed Out Version of Painting:

Original Photo:

Watercolor Painting Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this painting, specifically contrasting a delicate sunset with darker foreground shapes, such as these cliffs. It’s fun to paint on a large canvas as well!

I hope you enjoyed this writeup and that it might have sparked an idea for you - maybe a new way to creatively approach something you’re working on.

Comment or ‘like’ to let me know your thoughts. Until next time!

Thank You

Shout-out to Erik B., Sarah F., Gina, Amy, Ivan, Brian D., Allie S., Mattias, Zorina N. and 1 other for subscribing since my last post. I appreciate this growing community of art enthusiasts and supporters!