Suddenly crashed into art again

Hi, My name is Lola Slade. I live in Toronto, Canada. I started this blog to try to capture some of the excitement I have about making artwork again. I started this blog about 5 weeks after getting started with painting again which was back in December 2020 during Christmas break. I grabbed a cheap watercolor set, a small set of cheap Walmart brushes plus a couple of the store brand white taklon brushes. I also picked up an an instruction book. (Already had the pad of watercolor paper from an impulse purchase a few years ago).

Forty dollars didn't seem too bad. I didn't know what I was getting into!

I am still trying to keep my art hobby on a budget but once the enthusiasm took over that is proved hard. I will be writing about materials as I go through the inevitable upgrade curve.

My restart was after a really long break from creating. More than 20 years ago I went to art school for a year. Once I started again I found I could still basically copy photographs in pencil. The rest I am going to have to learn or relearn.

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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. \

Art book first impressions: Get up and Gouache. Also first ever gouache!

I just received this new book late last week. I was a little disappointed initially because it doesn't look like the level of the exercises builds very high? I was hoping to see some step by step breakdowns of the more exciting, storybook art pieces in the back such as "Lost". The only more complex piece with a breakdown is "Magical Mountains". However I probably just have hubris and the exercises will probably be very challenging. We will see. I jumped right in and did the first project with my Turner Design Gouache. This was my first ever try with Gouache! This exercise turned out to be a great way to test the paints because there were lots of colours to mix. Main takeaway: Wow! Gouache is such a bright and rich medium! I can't believe this colour of red! However, I realized I screwed up when purchasing my basic set. I didn't purchase a dark blue or dark green. Those are now ordered and on the way. I will update this review after...

Work from Everyday Watercolor - Day 3 - Triangles

This is an exercise in brush control and glazing. It worked better than my first attempt at glazing. I only had one spot where the color started lifting. (Left side bright yellow triangle) Materials Strathmore 400 paper W&N Cotman Gamboge W&N Cotman Permanent Rose New to me: New color: Using W&N Cotman Gamboge New color: Using W&N Cotman Permanent Rose Learned from this Triangles are very forgiving. If you go past the end you can just make them bigger. When glazing there is a little bit of a "hump" when transitioning from paper to paint that requires practice not to jiggle and make the line waver.

Crashing water

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