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.

Playing with Water Colors

So I have this project that I'm working on and I've decided that it would be best done with water colors. However, while I do enjoy oils and have dabbled successfully with acrylics, water colors are probably the medium that I am the least comfortable working with. I have tried it before, but never with an end result that I was pleased with.

The trouble is, painting with water colors is pretty much the exact opposite of oils. With oils, and even acrylics, you can be more haphazard with the whole process. You have a general idea what you want the end product to look like, then (similar to water colors) you start with the light colors and add the dark. However, the difference is, if you don't like it, you wait for a bit and then go back in and repaint whatever part you didn't like; if it's too dark, you just add more white on top, or vice-versa. With water colors you have one shot. You have to know, before you start, what the desired outcome is going to be.. you need to plan it out because the white in the picture is the uncolored paper. I'm not so good at the planning part. That makes me very nervous since I'd really like this project to turn out to my satisfaction (which, admittedly, is sometimes a rather tall order) ... Nevertheless, I remain convinced that water color is the best and only way to produce the effect that I'm after.

So, now I'm left to contemplate my options. I suppose I could find a place that is offering classes and sign up and attend a series of sessions over the course of several weeks to figure out how to make a water color picture turn out the way I'd like.. but that seems like a very drawn out, arduous process. Plus, I'm not that patient; I'd like to be able to sit down and make it work TODAY. So, I've decided that the best way to go about this is to teach myself how to water color. To achieve this, I've turned to the trusty internet. It has not let me down. In my searching, I've found a couple sites that have offered very helpful advice. There's this one, and also this one.. but the one that has been most helpful is this one.

And tonight, after several days of putting it off and avoiding starting out of nervousness, I finally sat down and began putting into practice all that I've been reading about.

First, I set up my work space. (For someone who doesn't like water colors, I have a lot of supplies in my art drawer.) While it might not be as fancy as this set-up, it seemed a suitable beginning.

Then, I did some practice runs of a few exercises suggested on that very helpful site. First I tried a wash, charging colors, and then some bricks. Here are the results of my efforts:

I think that I'll go back and review some points but, overall, it's not too shabby for a beginner.