Major art supplies haul

I have been waiting for this order for over a month. It was held up in the pandemic lockdown. Finally!

A basic set of Gouache

Fingers crossed that this works out. I have heard mixed reviews on the brand. It is less than half the price of the major brands though.

An amazing looking watercolor palette

This looks like one of the best options available. I will be filling it with W&N Cotman colors. Sometimes I feel guilty about all the palettes I have purchased (6 of them now) but then I realize they are all in currently use except one.

New sketchbook! And papers

Looking forward to using this spiral bound sketchbook with mixed media paper. Right now I am using a bound cartridge paper book that was only $5. It isn't very good with water at all as you might guess. Not pictured: Tracing paper.

More drawing supplies

India ink, ink droppers, bamboo pen, gum eraser a couple of small brushes. Not pictured: Erasing shield.

More Cotman colors

I am upgrading from the Staedtler student set ($16.99 for 24) to these ($4.99-$9.99 for 1). They are still student grade but are a big step up. I have about 21 Cotman colors now.

Comments

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. \

Simple apple painting

Not sure if this is more successful than my first fruit painting but I certainly thought about it more. I tried to use lifting to get the white spots on the skin (which I think worked ok) and for the reflections around the edge (which didn't really work). I also tried adding white after for the waxy white part of the skin. I know it's not recommended I just wanted to see what it would look like.

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 simpl...

Crashing water

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