Pastels and Watercolors (and a few other art media)

[SquarePeg]

Found some tutorials and am learning how to do some impressionist flowers. I'm using gouache paints as watercolors and experimenting to see how different things look while I'm working with the wet paint and after they dry. This is my "what does this paint do in the watery-est state?" phase of learning. I've already gotten an idea of what they do when they are a bit thicker.

I know I still have a long way to go, but the attempts are getting better so I thought I'd screw up the guts to post The flowers are better than the stems - these particular stems are part of my attempt to learn color mixing. I also started playing with layering and shading to create texture in the tree trunk on the right. The "leaves" are a crude start at figuring out proportion and it sucks so I covered most of it with the other flower

View attachment 191317

The flowers look delicate and lovely! I think they both dried down beautifully. Everything you're describing is why I'm intimidated by watercolors.

Here's an older sketch in oil pastels, learning leaves:

View attachment 191345


I'm not wild about the flower itself but liked how the leaves turned out. That's a dark green along the bottom edges, and in the inside for veins, and two lighter greens along the tops and in the inside. I've learned to use at least 3 different shades, even a dark yellow. It all blends pretty well.

I still suck at flowers, though. They just never look good.

I confiscated Princess’s colored pencils today and watched a tutorial on creating violets with watercolors and ink at lunch and tried to mimic it with pencils. It’s quite amateurish but was a good learning experience. If the stores were open I would have picked up a few things by now instead I am waiting on my Amazon delivery, itching to try some of the pretty techniques I’ve seen on YouTube. I never realized how spoiled ive become with instant access to stores that have anything you could possibly want (as long as you can afford it!) or the amazing 2 day shipping of Amazon Prime and most retail stores before the pandemic.

Here’s my violets. Critique and suggestions for improvement are always welcome!

Again sideways and not sure why! Only happens on TPF.

 

[terri]

I think you did very well, especially considering you were following a tutorial for other media.

What would happen if you added a highlight to the greens, I wonder? I like to think of them as my sunshine colors. See if the set from Princess has a yellow-green. You could run a line along a side of each stem, thinking about where the light source is coming from. (Unlike photography, light in drawing is artist's choice.) Apply the same in areas around, or within, the leaves. Or just a yellow.

I'm also going to plug online stores like Blick art, or Jerry's Artarama. They have great sales and free shipping offers from time to time.

 

[SquarePeg]

I think you did very well, especially considering you were following a tutorial for other media.

What would happen if you added a highlight to the greens, I wonder? I like to think of them as my sunshine colors. See if the set from Princess has a yellow-green. You could run a line along a side of each stem, thinking about where the light source is coming from. (Unlike photography, light in drawing is artist's choice.) Apply the same in areas around, or within, the leaves. Or just a yellow.

I'm also going to plug online stores like Blick art, or Jerry's Artarama. They have great sales and free shipping offers from time to time.

I’ll give that a try! Thank and for the tip for the other stores.

 

[snowbear]

I like Blick. I liked the ones around here when they were still Utrecht. Plaza Art is another one that has a decent choice; they still have a couple of B&M in the DC area.

 

[SquarePeg]

Most recent pencils drawing from a watercolor tutorial. I’m definitely going to try this one in paint. I messed up the fence pickets- too wonky and should be further apart. I’m mostly happy with the flower proportions except the stem is awkwardly placed against the edge of the picket.

 

[snowbear]

Try using your pencil, paintbrush or even eraser to "measure" distances. If your working from a photo, lay the pencil on the photo and mark the distance using the end of the pencil and your thumb; hold it at arms length or so when working with a live model or scene. Then "transfer" the measurement to your drawing. It might take some time to get the scale down, but it can help getting proportions right.

 

[limr]

Trying some more abstract flower tutorials, this time with watercolors. Messed up that bigger top on, so clearly I am not consistent yet, but the other shapes are better than earlier attempts.

And this was a different tutorial. First attempt, could be better, but it was fun. Started to learn about layering, and also about how to fix mistakes

 

[SquarePeg]

Trying some more abstract flower tutorials, this time with watercolors. Messed up that bigger top on, so clearly I am not consistent yet, but the other shapes are better than earlier attempts.

View attachment 191580

And this was a different tutorial. First attempt, could be better, but it was fun. Started to learn about layering, and also about how to fix mistakes

View attachment 191581

These are great! Wouldn’t mind trying that tutorial on that second one if you can find it again and post the link? I’m currently debating doing this one: Watercolor Tree Painting tutorial Cherry blossom [Eng sub] - PaintingTube

 

[limr]

Trying some more abstract flower tutorials, this time with watercolors. Messed up that bigger top on, so clearly I am not consistent yet, but the other shapes are better than earlier attempts.

View attachment 191580

And this was a different tutorial. First attempt, could be better, but it was fun. Started to learn about layering, and also about how to fix mistakes

View attachment 191581

These are great! Wouldn’t mind trying that tutorial on that second one if you can find it again and post the link? I’m currently debating doing this one: Watercolor Tree Painting tutorial Cherry blossom [Eng sub] - PaintingTube

Here ya go!


She's got some other ones that I'd like to try, too.

I think it's time for new supplies.

 

[SquarePeg]

Have to say I just discovered something really cool. I was watching the tutorial on my iPad and typing the above response on my phone. I wanted to post the tutorial from the iPad and I copied it from the iPad and it came up when I hit paste on my iPhone. Magic.

 

[limr]

Have to say I just discovered something really cool. I was watching the tutorial on my iPad and typing the above response on my phone. I wanted to post the tutorial from the iPad and I copied it from the iPad and it came up when I hit paste on my iPhone. Magic.

Witchcraft!!

 

[limr]

Aaaaand, new supplies have been ordered from Blick. Thanks for the recommendations for art supply websites so I can avoid Amazon for a while!

I've got new brushes, paints, and paper, as well as a new palette so now I can use that one for watercolors and the current one for gouache.

 

[SquarePeg]

Nice! I got the watercolors I ordered this afternoo. It’s much smaller scale than I anticipated but I like the colors and it folds up into a small tin to go with the small journal I got. I can toss them both in my purse and the “brush” is one of those hollow ones that holds it’s own water. So a tiny travel kit I guess. Just add water and a napkin and I’m good to go. I’ll show it to you later.

Here’s the very small first attempt at the cherry tree. I’ll be trying this again now that I know where I went off the rails. The trunk and branches were so much harder than he made it seem and my shadow is all wrong. But all in all a good first try with the new paints I think.

 

[waday]

You artists are kicking ass. All of these look great!

 

[SquarePeg]

I’m really enjoying this. Princess has been critiquing me. She loves being able to tell me what I did wrong for a change lol.