The Church of Saint Jacues, Dieppe, Rainy Weather

The cathedral dominates the left edge of the composition, its dark stone mass and towering spire rising sharply against a pale, overcast sky. Light falls from above and upper-right, creating deep shadows in the Gothic arches and the cathedral's own recessed forms. The eye moves from the spire down through the church body to the bustling plaza below, where a dense crowd fills the foreground with scattered marks of color—reds and greens suggest market canopies and clothing. The composition uses stepped recession: the cathedral's vertical thrust, the horizontal marketplace, then buildings stacking back toward the right, all unified by the soft, rainy atmosphere.

The darkest darks are the open Gothic arches and cathedral interior shadows—nearly black holes that anchor the left side. The lightest lights sit in the upper sky and on sun-struck building facades to the right. The cathedral stone itself occupies the mid-dark band, while the crowd and plaza are mid-tone with warm undertones. A clear value gradient moves from dark-left to lighter-right, creating depth; squinting reveals that most of the painting clusters in the middle values with only the sky and deep shadows creating true contrast.

• #d7dce6

  Titanium white + touch ultramarine blue

  Upper sky and light-struck areas of the cathedral stonework

• #c0bac3

  Titanium white + raw umber + ultramarine blue

  Middle sky, cathedral highlighted edges, distant building facades

• #7b696e

  Raw umber + ultramarine blue + titanium white

  Cathedral stone mid-tones, shadows on surrounding buildings, crowd mid-values

• #4b3a41

  Raw umber + ultramarine blue (deep mix, nearly black)

  Interior of Gothic arches, deepest shadows on cathedral, dark clothing and figures in crowd

• #9b888b

  Raw umber + ultramarine blue + titanium white (lighter than main stone)

  Plaza ground, crowd masses, mid-tone buildings on the right side

• #e9edf1

  Titanium white + minimal ultramarine blue

  Brightest sky areas, white architectural highlights on buttresses and ornaments

The sky is handled with loose, directional strokes that follow the movement of clouds and suggest wind—leave these soft and broken, never blended smooth. The cathedral stonework uses firmer edges to define the arches and buttresses, but even here the surface is built with visible mark-making, not smoothed. The crowd in the foreground is rendered with gestural flicks and dabs—individual figures are merely implied through small dark and colored marks scattered across the plaza. A palette knife has worked the foreground plaza surface to create broken texture and color mixing. Distant buildings recede with softer, hazier edges and looser handling.

1. 01

   Establish composition landmarks

   Lightly map the cathedral spire position (left-center, tall) and its base as the main vertical anchor. Mark the horizon line where sky meets distant roofline (roughly one-third from top). Indicate the plaza as a large middle ground mass below the church. Block the surrounding buildings as simple rectangular masses receding right and back. Keep this stage simple—just proportions and placement.

2. 02

   Lay in the sky

   Use the #10 flat brush to scrub loose sky tone across the upper third, working a pale gray-blue (white + touch ultramarine + raw umber). Leave directional variation—don't aim for uniformity. The sky should feel loose and airy; use visible strokes following imagined wind direction. Soften any hard edges. This sets the mood of overcast, damp weather.

3. 03

   Block cathedral mass and deep shadows

   With the #6 flat, lay in the main cathedral form using mid-dark brown (raw umber + ultramarine). Immediately define the Gothic arches as the deepest dark—nearly pure black (raw umber + ultramarine, heavy on blue). The arches should feel like holes, darker than any other element. The contrast of light sky against dark stone is your key structure. Keep edges loose where the cathedral meets sky.

4. 04

   Define cathedral details and stonework

   With the #2 flat, outline the main buttresses, spire facets, and architectural divisions. Use a lighter gray (the pale mix) to indicate where light catches the stone edges and ornaments. Don't overwork—Gothic cathedrals read through clear geometric form, not minute detail. The shadows on the stone itself should show the rounded volume of the walls, not just flatness. A few deliberate strokes outperform ten uncertain ones.

5. 05

   Build the plaza and crowd base

   Use the #10 flat and palette knife to scrub in the plaza foreground with warm mid-tone (raw umber + touch ultramarine + white). Use the knife to create broken, textured surface—don't smooth. Begin massing the crowd as scattered dark marks and touches of warmer color (reds, ochres) suggesting clothing and canopies. The crowd should feel alive and variable, not uniform. Leave some plaza showing through for light and shadow play.

6. 06

   Layer surrounding buildings and atmospheric depth

   Block the right-side buildings and distant structures using progressively lighter, cooler, hazier tones (more white, less raw umber, toward the pale gray-blue of atmosphere). The buildings closest recede fastest; those farthest should nearly merge with the sky. Use loose edges and let the brushwork become visible. The sense of rain and distance comes from these softer, cooler buildings pulling away from the warm, detailed cathedral.

7. 07

   Refine and animate the crowd

   With the #2 round and #2 flat, add gestural marks throughout the plaza—quick dabs of dark (people), touches of red/pink and green (clothing, parasols, market goods). These should be impressionistic, not realistic figures. Scatter them unevenly to imply density and movement. Use the #6 flat to add subtle shadow shapes across the plaza ground to suggest their forms without overdefining. Some figures catch light, others dissolve into shadow.

8. 08

   Atmospheric finishing and highlights

   Step back and assess. Add final highlights with pale gray-white (titanium white + touch blue) to cathedral ornaments, building edges on the right, and occasional bright touches in the crowd. Soften any harsh edges with a dry brush. Reinforce the deepest shadows in the arches if needed. A final loosely-scumbled pass with a #10 flat over parts of the sky and plaza can unify the damp, rainy mood. The painting should feel seen through mist and weather, not under bright sun.

• The cathedral shadow (the recessed forms on its own body) is easily made too dark and flat, destroying volume—use the lighter mid-tone to show the rounded mass, not just blackness for shadow
• The crowd becomes a muddy, lifeless blob if treated as a solid form; it must stay broken and gestural with varied marks, color flecks, and scattered rhythm to suggest living people
• Overworking or smoothing the sky destroys the rainy, atmospheric quality—rainy weather reads through loose, directional, visible brushwork; resist the urge to blend
• If the surrounding buildings on the right become too dark or detailed, they'll pull focus from the cathedral and compress the depth—keep them progressively lighter and hazier as they recede
• The proportions of the plaza relative to the cathedral are easy to misjudge; if the plaza shrinks too much, the composition loses its sense of the cathedral dominating a public space

beginner friendliness

value contrast

palette complexity

compositional simplicity

brushwork visibility