Rainbow Bisque

I think this is my first attempt at creating something furry in watercolor. That technique seemed to be something far off - something I would only get to try once I was some kind of watercolor master. That was sort of a silly thing to think. A lot of practice and study is sometimes all it takes. Since this creature was based on imagination and I skipped the research phase, there are some funky spots. Most of the time, I had no idea which direction to make the hair flow. Over all, I think it looks pretty good. I'm excited to be able to try this technique on some real life animals (though I don't think I'm done painting monsters). My least favorite thing in the piece is the lollipop. It looks fine - it just isn't as shiny as I would have liked. That might be something I have to look into soon.

Sort of a success and a failure all wrapped up in one. The concept in my head was, "what if wasps could glow?" I found some excellent reference photos of wasps - I just had to put it all together. I changed the black to a light blue and filled the background with washes of yellow (and a touch of that light blue for harmony). I wanted a contrasting darkness to surround the light wasp and make the glow more intense. This is where I messed up. I didn't mix enough of the dark color (a combination of payne's grey and purple lake) to evenly color the area. I used a large flat brush to apply the color - which created hard edges. To top it all off, I went a little too far in and destroyed some of the detail in the wings. Big washes like this have stumped me from the very beginning of my watercolor project. I have a really difficult time knowing how much paint to mix. I never seem to use enough water. If there are obstacles to paint around, I have a tough time keeping ev...

After a few attempts at similar effects, I've come to the conclusion that masking fluid may not be the best method for creating certain details (like veins in a leaf). It's difficult to get a consistent line width with masking fluid. It's even more difficult to create thin lines. Maybe I just haven't found a good applicator for this, but I think I would rather just lift out the veins. A technique I am fond of is this wet-into-wet technique. If I mix my colors ahead of time and use the proper amount of water, I can fill in a complete shape and add the areas of darkness and discoloration in one go. I'm not always successful with it, but I feel like my washes look a little more sophisticated and professional this way. Speaking of mixing color - I still feel like I need a lot of improvement there. I'm not having trouble obtaining the correct hue - that's the sort of thing I dream/think about on a daily basis. I just haven't figured out the best practi...

Fall is my favorite time of the year. I'm lucky to live in a place full of trees representing all the great colors of Autumn. I took a quick trip to the park and gathered a small collection of leaves to paint - this is my first one. It took some time to figure out the best way to paint this, but I eventually found something that worked.I layered in some watery washes of color to fill the body of the leaf, then I dabbed more saturated color into the edges. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it took a couple tries.I considered adding a drop shadow, but I think it stands on its own.