Making Progress...

So, for the last little while, I've been working on teaching myself to watercolor. As with any skill, it's a process and takes practice and, yes, even patience. (though that is sometimes a tough one)

my work station (in its natural state)

But, all the practicing and researching and reading has been paying off; I feel like I'm making progress and I'm even feeling pretty good about the results!

One thing I've found, that is actually pretty exciting, is that watercolors are good for layering. You may not be able to go in and completely paint over whatever parts are less satisfactory, however, you can go in and put more color on top of what you've already done to create some cool effects.

the bricks after 2 or 3 layers, for texture

Also, I've been playing with the use of masking fluid. I've used it before (way back in high school art class) so that wasn't too experimental, more like a reminder for me. It comes in white and off-white. I don't think the color makes much difference one way or the other; it doesn't leave behind any marks one the paper once it's dry and peeled off... but I got the off-white because it's easier to see against the white paper.
I did notice, however, that peeling off the mask is a very effective way of removing any pencil marks from off of the paper; that is something I'll keep in mind in the future. With this first picture, I had drawn in the outline of the girl with very light lines and most of them came up with the mask and so I had to go in and re-draw some areas.

So here are the final results:

In addition to the watercolor, for the the girl in the window and to add texture to the bricks, I used colored pencils. I turned to that medium for the detail work because I knew I could get the clarity I wanted with colored pencils; my old reliable, fall-back favorite.