Initial impressions: Watercolor essentials, Hands on techniques for exploring watercolor in motion

I got this book from the library. I planned to purchase it at the time but wanted to make sure it would work for my level first. At the time of reading it I have been using watercolors for 6 weeks. It's definitely a good book but after going through it I am not sure it is the next step that I need.

Pros

There is a good section on the DVD on washes and problems with washes
There are a few good basic exercises like the value and shadows exercises that I would like to work on
The tip to use "contact paper" from the hardware store might save me a lot of money as I was seriously wondering whether masking film was something I needed to buy
The special techniques tips are well explained and it's nice to have all the demos on the disc

Cons

A large amount of the book and the DVD are devoted to texturing techniques that I would consider special effects. I would have preferred to see more demonstrations (over and over again) of basic washes, charging and applying those to simple compositions.

Comments

Work from Everyday Watercolor - Day 4 - Abstract composition

Another challenging exercise. This time working on day 4 of the popular book Everyday Watercolor . This seemed to take way longer than expected by the author. It took time to pick out the 6 colours. I like the set I picked well enough but don't love them. The exercise challenge is to balance warm and cool colors, stay within lines and practice painting right next to previous washes of paint. This seems to work on water control and gauging drying time. I also got a bit of practice fixing mistakes. I had a couple of large blooms I wanted to fix and one or two drops that got outside of lines. I was very happy with the Winsor and Newton Cotman #6 brush this time. The springy tip did a great job cleaning up tiny edges. Previously I had issues with this brush dumping little bits of water and the tip "squaring off" sort of but not this time. Maybe it was the amount of paint I was using? Learning: Choosing and using a larger palette (6+ colors) Water control Fixing mistakes b...

Work from "101 Watercolor techniques" - Exercise 005

This exercise was a bit of a struggle for a beginner. Believe it or not the result below is the third attempt. The point of the exercise was to get a result of depth on the paper using only analogous colours and without using color gradation. I am sure I learned something from it. What I think I struggled with among other things was "water control" - keeping the water within the small leaf areas from running. Learning: As I went along I had a little bit more freedom with the strokes. I started to notice how the exercise author was using negative space and tried to replicate it. \

Little clock drawing

The shiny look is due to cheap sketchbook paper that can't take any moisture. I am waiting on two Canson XL sketchbooks to be delivered - That will be exciting 😀! One is a small mixed media one and the other is the watercolor one with 30 sheets. Looking forward to trying them both.

Crashing water

Search This Blog