#watercolor tutorial

[gracekraft]

For anyone who enjoys my watercolors and has wondered about my process or any watercolor advice I have for those interested in using it, I bring you Brushtale, a zine that compiles my thoughts regarding those very things!

This 18-page digital pdf zine is available here!

[watercolorpaintingsworld]

Ever watched your art fall apart right in front of you? 😭🎨

Don't throw it out! The material science secrets from TroubleShooting-Guide.mp4 can save your next masterpiece:

Pencil Smudges: Lift graphite straight up with a kneaded eraser—never rub!

Muddy Paint: Let it dry completely before layering. Limit mixtures to 3 colors.

Warped Paper: Mist the back lightly and flatten under heavy books overnight.

Work with science, not against it! ✨🔬

Comprehensive Troubleshooting Guide: https://prominentpainting.com/troubleshooting-glossary-for-artists/

[goatlilly]

I love your watercolor style! Any tips?

Hm… Let’s see. Watercolor is a good medium for blending and layering color—it’s usually best to start lighter and add pigment in layers, since it’s hard to remove paint, and watercolor is transparent, so once the color’s been added it’s there to stay. Add your hi-lights first, and then your shadows. As an example of what can happen if you do the opposite, Well….

Yeah…. Probably should have cut my losses sooner with that one. It’s also a good idea to be flexible if you use watercolors, because unless you go really slowly, something’s going to end up in the picture that you didn’t originally plan for. Mistakes don’t always have to ruin your piece—sometimes they can enhance it:

In this case, the black paint smeared on the Cellist, and the piece was due the next day, so instead of starting over, I decided to make more sharp smears in the other parts of the painting and make it a part of the picture. I feel like it adds drama and makes the painting as a whole more interesting. Since this happened, it’s become a part of my art style to add background splashes and streaks of mismatched color, because I know I won’t be able to paint in the lines. Speaking of lines, let’s talk about line-art and watercolor. If you’re using ink of any kind for your pictures, either add it last or make sure it’s water resistant, because a lot of liners smear when they make contact with water. My favorite brand is Micron Pens, since they line cleanly, they’re fast drying, and you can paint right over them and they don’t smear at all!

If you want to, though, you can do line work with watercolors paints, you just need a detail brush, a high amount of pigment in proportion to water, and a whole lot of patience. Here’s an example of a piece I did where I used this technique:

This method tends to look more natural when you do it, so I tend to reserve it for my more ambitious art pieces. It takes a lot of time though, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re trying to paint fast. You can also just do Pencil underneath, without any darker lines. I did this a lot when I was younger because I preferred the way it looked back then:

Whatever look you want to achieve.

As to blending colors: Opposites tend to make brown, but you’ll get different kinds of brown depending on what shades you use. For example, if I mix the green and the red the Mad hatter is waring in the image above, I end up with a sort of foresty black color. If I mix an oreangy yellow with purple, I usually end up with a warmer almost honey brown color. One of the best ways to learn how to color blend is to pull out a piece of paper and just try different color combinations—paying attention to trends and noting which colors mix the best. It’s really fun, like science. (Technically it is actually science.) It’s something you’ll naturally get better at the longer you paint, so don’t worry if you can’t get the colors to look the way you want. I still can’t seem to make my green show up on my Black Cat designs, no matter what I mix. :(

See? You can barely tell his eyes are green. What’s up with that? Anyway….

For cheap Watercolor brands, Go with Crayola or Masters touch, and steer clear of any Crazy Art or anything that looks more like a Tums than paint. Dry watercolors are best if you want convenience or maximum possible control over the consistency of the paint1-they’re generally easier to use and easier to store. However, liquid watercolors (the kind you get in tubes that look a bit like acrylics when you squeeze them out) are usually better for higher pigment quality and tend to give you more options. They also have the added bonus of being long term use, even after they’ve dried out, so keep them on your pallet until they’re used up! Once they’re dried, they act basically the same as the ones that come dry, but still have the better pigment quality, so if you have the patience for that, they’re generally the better option. If you do use them wet, though, you can achieve some pretty interesting results:

They almost act as a sort of hybrid between acrylics and Watercolors, so that can be a lot of fun. :)

Anyway, hopefully some of that was useful. If I confused you, I apologize. There are a lot of really good tutorials on YouTube for this stuff, btw, so if you want more instruction, that’s a great place to look for it. Anyway, that’s it for me. Hope that was a good use of your time. :)

[majoartspace]

House in Winter

Winter is almost over in my corner of the world, so this painting is my farewell to this beautiful season, at least, until we meet again.

We had a few snowy days in January that covered everything. It was a beautiful sight everywhere you looked. So, one day close to sunset, I was bicycling around and saw this house covered in snow, with a tall tree next to it. The sunset gave the snow a lavender tint which looked so pretty, so I had to take a photo to paint later. My previous winter painting had all white snow so the opportunity to experiment with colorful snow was exciting. I am beyond happy with the final result.

I not often have the opportunity to use my lavender pigment so I was thrilled to work with it again. I also used one of the new pigments in my watercolor palette: Jaune Briliant Dark, which was really convenient for this painting, I'm happy I added it to my palette.

To be honest I prepared myself to feel it more difficult, and maybe that helped me because I started to paint the first layer when all of a sudden I was almost over with it. I think I might be improving more than I think.

I think I had never done a winter painting before, probably because I never fully experienced it before, so I'm really happy with this and my previous winter painting, but I'm also happy that spring is upon us because I'm so ready for more colorful and warmer paintings.

Thanks for stopping by and if you'd like to see the process of this painting, here it is:

[sacredsapling]

How to transfer sketches to watercolor paper

Ever created a drawing you really love, then decided that you wanted to paint it in watercolor (or transfer it to another type of paper)? Or maybe you just want to avoid smudges on your good paper? Or transfer a digital sketch onto paper?

This tutorial will help!

Start with a sketch on plain cheap copy or sketch paper (print if you need to, or photocopy your original sketch if you don't want to ruin it).

Next, flip the paper over (so you're looking at the blank side) and put it on a lightbox. Don't have one? No worries! Hold it up to a window, or put it on your iPad screen at max brightness.

Now, take an (ideally HB non-mechanical) graphite pencil and scribble all over the lines shining through, until it looks like a messy copy of your original sketch.

(First image is of just the graphite back, second is of the corner flipped so you can see the original sketch too)

Now, attach it to your nice paper graphite side down. Use tape on two corners (so it stays in place, but you can peel up the other corners to check it). 

Tips for easily released tape: Cut the tape to your desired length and put it on fabric, like your pants, and pull it off. Repeat a few times. The oils from your fingers plus the fibers will make it less sticky!

Now, trace the original side of your sketch with a ball point pen! You need a very sharp tip and to be able to see where you’ve drawn, so definitely use a ball point pen for this. Use firm pressure!! (Your hand will probably be sore if you do this all at once). Make sure you’re on a hard surface, too.

Tip: start in a corner you can flip to check, and make sure it's transferring properly. If not, add more/a softer graphite to the back and/or press harder.

When you're done, you'll have a light but visible pencil guide to paint right over!

Want other tips? Send in an ask or check out my tutorial tag!

[art-tnt]

Watercolor Tutorial with Yoichi Nishikawa

"Follow along and learn more about the whimsical beautiful world of background art with Yoichi Nishikawa. In this 30-minute tutorial Yoichi walks through the process, shares techniques, and introduces the tools used to create his signature airy cloud backgrounds. Academy Museum family day programs are made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. To protect the health of our community, the Academy Museum enforces health and safety protocols that are kept up to date on our website." - Academy Museum Youtube Description

[dungeonsandcartoons]

Come join me as I paint a small town for my D&D world.

[abiahenk]