Gondolas. It could only be Venice. Here’s a tutorial I’ve put together based on this wonderful photograph courtesy of Google Images.  It’s slightly enhanced colour wise but I like it for it’s graphic composition.

Start with a good horizontal line for the sea level, the rest can be freehand sketching. I’ve omitted the pontoons running across the middle of the picture as I felt they detracted from the scene. The key to this picture is getting the smooth curves of the gondolas right. I fine tuned the shapes as I went along.The initial washes are wet in wet and I’ve used body colour  – a gouache white mixed in with the watercolours to give some opacity. So, strictly speaking this is mixed media. I just felt it was the right choice for adding details to the gondolas in the final frames.