Watercolour Painting Practise

Today I practised some more in another way. I drew another picture and coloured it in with watercolour pencils and then used some water on a brush to add water to the flower. It didn't work like I expected it to so I used coloured markers to deepen the colours some more. The idea was to see if I could eliminate the watercolour paint. That somehow improved things but the original looks better than the photographed version. So I have now added it above. Here you can read about how I started watercolour painting.

Sometimes it's nice to also practise something different and completely new to you. So, I decided to see what would happen if I painted something on newsprint. I was surprised to see that one could manage to paint on newsprint and that it handles the water from the paint pretty well. The result is above.

 Recently, I bought painting journals. One was cheap and the other was more expensive. To test the cheaper one first I sketched a picture and proceeded to paint with watercolour paints. The more paint I added the worse it looked. But I persevered and persevered and wished and hoped that the picture would look alright in the end. All part of practising.

Only when I started adding the details in black did the painting start to look better. That is the secret of creating a painting. Once the black is added then that helps to add some structure to the painting and it improves what you are looking at - that's my opinion anyway.

Now I can add it to the collection that I have on display in our lounge. By doing this it motivates me to continue with my art. I was told by a lady who owns a gallery that I should continue painting buildings and specialise in that. I won't do that because I still want to explore painting many different things and that will be good practise for me as a novice artist. 

Yes, I still consider myself a complete beginner. To stay humble is the best thing because I realise that I still have a lot to learn. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy my little victories because each finished painting that looks okay is a victory to me. And I'm proud of my work because I start with a blank sheet of paper, sketch something on it in pencil, take a brush with paint on it and play with it until something gets onto the paper in different places. That transforms the blank sheet of paper into a work of art. My work of art.

I know it is customary for artists to mention the famous brand of materials that they use to create their work of art. I just thought of that and am adding a photograph showing off my materials. This may surprise some people but what I used is Faber-Castell watercolours and I have included the water pencils as well as a lead pencil. Oh yes, I didn't include the Faber-Castell eraser in the photo which is my favourite when I need to remove something. The watercolour set contains 48 colours which have worked very well for me since I am still learning how to mix new colours. I'm very happy with these paints because they are convenient to use and quick. I have other watercolour tubes and sets but for convenience I usually return to my Faber-Castell set.