“Tokyo at Night" 04

The fourth piece in the “Tokyo at Night” series of watercolors paintings.
This time I used one of the photos we took with Kana on a little location hunting session near Kagurazaka in Tokyo.
I especially liked the vegetable shop on the left with it’s bright lights, selling food despite the late hour and the traditional Japanese sentō - public bath on the right (it’s the building with the tiled roof).
Technical stuff:
Paper: HOLBEIN Waterford natural 300g/m cotton paper
Sketch: Mitsu-bishi Hi-Uni pencil grade B
Line: COPIC Multiliner SP 0.5mm
Colours: my main 48 colour Schmincke set
White details: Dr. Ph. Martin’s BLEED PROOF WHITE
Feel free to check out my other stuff:
Gumroad: gumroad.com/ma...
Patreon: / mateuszurbanowicz
Blog: / mattjabbar
Twitter: / gommatt
🎵 Music by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

[@garrytuohy9267]

I love the illuminated sign. I could imagine that there is some light behind the painting.

[@KarijnsWatercolors]

This is gorgeous, I am always in awe when I see you draw, it's like you already see how the final image looks like so the partial sections you fill in are already colored correctly with the final tones.

[@sagarlimaye]

Dobrey Den, Bro you are really gifted. I really like your sketching details, water color shades and detailing inside the shops. You are not only gifted with art, but the most incredible gift you are having to teach and educate the beginners. God bless you. Gekuji..

[@sionry5229]

I'm catching up and rewatching so many of your videos. I've been binging this for the past 3 hours and I don't even binge TV shows XDD

[@SupersushiBlues]

Absolutely stunning as always! This might be my favorite "Tokyo at Night" painting yet; the colors are so clean and crisp(probably because of not layering colors) and Tokyo looks so quiet, yet alive. Thank you for posting these videos! I can't wait to see the animation too

[@xave72]

Superb ! The halo on the shop sign and the light reflection on the pavement are super nice !

[@revolboiart]

I really enjoy watching these paintings. Very inspiring.

[@mariamaltwijri5486]

Unbelievably amazing 😩💕💕💕I can watch your videos all day and not get bored

[@summerbee80]

Ya, night scenes I seem to like more. Gives off mysterious aura and the lights show it's true potential, love it matz 😊

[@santiagopescador908]

Oh, wow, me encanta, me impresiona.

[@sritidvrma369]

I really love ur drawings...n it motivate me 2 try my own drawing

[@juancarlosbarrososanchez8960]

I congratulate you for your illustrations. I like them very much. I also like very much the music that you put in the background.

[@deeska8775]

I was no aware of the "Tokio at night" series, so I was stunned and impressed by this piece! Really like it a lot and as always wonderful colour choices and blending, Mateusz!

[@Rin-ot7ww]

Stumbled upon your account a moment ago, and your drawing is really soothing & beautiful. It's been a long time since i last paint and you really inspire me to continue again. I really like your art style!

[@DioSuonatore]

Absolutely beautiful

[@Myles2000]

Wow! You gained a subscriber, I’ve got some watercolours and watching you paint inspires me to do some of my own watercolour painting as my manga backgrounds!

[@vfxartds]

Been trying to find a way to say this for a while- I envy you being able to get to and be inspired by that amazing architecture, whether it's an area that is more or fully traditional, or a mix with modern... and you do fantastic work with what inspires you!

[@mattjabbar]

I would really like the modern Tokyo to be more inspired with traditional Japanese architecture. There is less and less of it here. :(

[@mullettom54]

One of your best. The more kontrasts the better...

[@LogicRockStar]

Good evening. I took a look at Timelapse. I showed a very fine portrayal of the line drawing before painting the color, I showed delicate parts and learned. The height of the beautifully colored technology can only be expressed exactly. I thought it was a glimpse of the depth of drawing and it was watching. I felt like I saw Tokyo where the Japanese did not notice. Makoto

[@mattjabbar]

Thank you so much!

[@Cookiechochip]

Beautiful as always ❤

[@dougg1075]

Crazy how you get the fine lettering on the sign with just a brush. Beautiful work

[@cloverlartiste]

I love your draws, it's fantastic

[@lizielim_miniatures]

Amazing!

[@long-hinshum5352]

I love this!

[@prodDaiki]

I love your Work!!

[@PotooBurd]

I hope you find your glasses! Lovely art by the way!

[@anam00090]

Love the Tokyo at Night series 😊 The variation of neutrals you get is beautiful. What's the reason behind not wanting to layer the paints? Is it the cleaner look or a stylistic choice?

[@anam00090]

Thanks for the reply, Yasmine ^_^ I thought about the drying time but with a nice heat gun that shouldn't be an issue. I hate using driers so I get the convenience of this approach. And the point of losing saturation is very valid. I just thought since it is a nighttime painting, and the colors in the end are not saturated anyway, maybe that wasn't the case. Though perhaps layers would dull it down even more 😊 Plus, getting all the values in one go is an amazing exercise and the result is super clean. Might try doing it to practice water ratio and mixing. I rely on layering too much 👀

[@mattjabbar]

Yasmine S. is right about the colors saturation. Even if you layer color carefully they tend to mix and blend together if you overdo it. For me thought it's all about the cleanliness of washes and wash's boundaries. When painting without layering I can get that simple, sharp, crisp wash textures and gradations that don't look overworked. It's easier to get that "watercolor-ness" and flat, Japanese woodblock-print like look not using too much layers. Also the edges of washes are cleaner.

[@CARYSHA]

Me to

[@upades]

Jak zwykle nieźle, szkoda że tak mało ludzi, bawi się w szarych mało kolorowych barwach, ale wiem że dużo ciężej, przedstawić coś interesującego, w tych odcieniach, znacznie łatwiej jest z kolorowym obrazkiem, tutaj jest i szarość i kolory, co świetnie jest ze sobą dopasowane, więc rysunek naprawdę dobry :D

[@oalexis]

another great painting in the tokyo at night series!

[@MisaMisa711]

Love this! Amazing colouring as usual. It always looks so natural. I noticed you got rid of the glasses on your avatar though :( any reason why you changed it? I really liked them! (Not that the new one looks bad at all haha)

[@mattjabbar]

The glasses character was from my "Cold In Yokohama" series, but as I started using him as my stand-in (especially in the Tokyo Storefronts book) I decided to get rid of the glasses (I don't wear glasses ... yet) :)

[@veroniquemeyer5704]

What kind of tape do you use? Mine always rips my paper…. Beautiful art!

[@mitchanx1337]

Your paintings give me inspiration! Thank you very much! BTW, what's the music on the background?

[@mitchanx1337]

Oh, sorry, did not notice.

[@hdghd5523]

Dodawaj w opisie watercolor czy coś bo super filmy a nie wyświetlają się na głównej. Znalazłem cie u kogoś w profilu przez przypadek pozdro

[@melisaputrip487]

hi! cna you make a video about how to make plants for urban sketch?

[@hepianesti5451]

Wow, that light reflection on the road is beautiful. Just curious, will you get the same blended effect using cheap watercolor set?

[@mattjabbar]

I guess you could get similar effects using a student grade watercolors (of a good maker) on good paper, but if you use even cheaper paints and paper they probably will not give you such smooth transitions and intensive colors (needed for a night scene).

[@kp_3dart]

🌻

[@richieray6619]

Have you tried Strathmore '400' watercolor journal?

[@mattjabbar]

Richie Ray nope, I will have to look into that one.

[@hafiz2664]

What kind of colours define ‘night’? Is it like colours has more blue or muted?

[@mattjabbar]

I would say that definitely all the colors are darker, mostly less saturated (but not always - I try to add some saturated colors when I can in this series). If you look at H S B sliders in Photoshop the B goes more towards Black for sure here.

[@septiansadewa891]

Do you use flash when you take a photo of that object ?

[@mattjabbar]

Nope :)

[@michaelmanski8391]

Hi. What do you do with the originals? Do you sell them on your site?

[@mattjabbar]

I sell most of the stuff that is not a part of series or materials for a book.

[@miraloaqui6495]

Tell me, where I have to start to be able to draw like you?

[@madhurya333]

um..Matt why did you remove the big glasses from your avatar icon??

[@mattjabbar]

It's because I don't wear glasses ;) and my dog avatar does not have glasses in the illustrations I did for the "Tokyo Storefronts" book, so I'm trying out this look.

[@juangabrielsoragomez1240]

hola sigo tus vídeos desde hace tiempo, me encantaría que tus vídeos fueran subtitulados al español Saludos desde Colombia

[@mattjabbar]

I'm really sorry but I don't know anyone who could do this, maybe someone in the community!

[@k-star9957]

Do you have Tokyo at night series course?

[@egraphy9599]

can you say from where you get these photos

[@mattjabbar]

I took them myself.

[@miguela.migallon8405]

Mateusz what size of paper generally you use?

[@mattjabbar]

I think I use the F4 paper the most.