paint a historic coastal tower in sardinia

Paint a Sardinian coastal tower in pen and watercolour
Paint a Sardinian coastal tower in pen and watercolour

All along the coast of Sardinia are these wonderful coastal towers. Every one is a little different and they're always in a spectacular position.

Dating from around 1570 onwards, a series of coastal towers was built right around the island to defend it from pirates coming from North Africa. The idea was to have each tower within communication range of the next one, to be able to give ample warning to the inhabitants.

These towers make wonderful sketching subjects and I thought you might want to follow step-by-step with me on this one.

Full step-by-step tutorial and reference photo on Patreon.

Paint a free watercolour online lesson

A free lesson for you!

One of my all-time favourite paintings of a stormy day in a ruined Roman town in Spain.

You can do this! Let me show you how. Join my community to receive this free video tutorial.

Join here
pen before the watercolour wash

pen before the watercolour wash

27 February 2026

Last weekend I ran a poll on Patreon and it seems a number of people are interested in different ways to approach watercolours and adding different media. I'm excited about this! Let's mix things up a...

Read more →

an olive branch in watercolour

an olive branch in watercolour

12 February 2026

There’s something wonderfully calming about painting botanicals. You don’t need to rush — you can slow right down and paint one leaf at a time, dipping in and out of the painting whenever you fi...

Read more →