Hey Everbody, A Water Colur Thread

[Rebecca]

heya, peeps
I just got a new set of watercolours.........except i've never used waters before, and i'm scared to waste them cos theyre very expensive :S

so. just to start off could anyone of you ppl, post some of your work, and give me some tips on how to use them, etc.

:^^: ta
------------
Rebecca

[Epoch]

Hey there rebecca. Don't be afraid!
The best way to learn a new medium is to just jump right in, so I suggest you do! I wish i could show some of my own work, but my scanner is broke and i have no digital camera. I DID however, do a quick search for some basic techniques... here u go ;)
http://www.johnlovett.com/techniq.htm
I hope this helps... and post some of your first attempts!

[Mindflaw]

Hi Rebecca

I've tested wc a little and heres some exercises that should be useful. They were to me anyway. Remeber to just have fun see wat happens if you don't paint the core shadow etc.

These exercises is about learning the basic techniques, as epoch said you really need to use the medium to learn it... make sure to do it without thinking about how expensive it is go wild be a free spirit yadda, yadda, yadda :^^:

exercise 1: prepare 1 A5 size paper then try every technique you may think of use at least all of the techniques that is in Epoch's link. Just test it and see what happens... maybe something like mine:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/Mindflaw/various%20drawings/abstract.jpg

Exercise 2: Prepare 3 A5 size paper, get a fruit of any kind, some salt, (and aquarelle pencils if you got any) and a toothbrush or similar. Mix a light colour and paint the papers to get a background colour...let dry.

Then wet the first paper and and draw the fruit. When you have drawn the fruit pour some salt on the paper it will give it structure. When everything is completely dry you could brush off the salt. My result

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/Mindflaw/various%20drawings/pear.jpg

Then you take the second paper that you make semi-wet/moist and draw the fruit again then you take the aquarelle pencils and scrape them so over the still wet colours in the painting to get some structure. My result below you don't see so much structure since I dindn't scrape that much
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/Mindflaw/various%20drawings/pear02.jpg

Then take the third paper and draw the fruit on dry paper then you take the toothbrush and use it to splash paint the the fruit by scraping with your thumb on the toothbrush... cover the areas that you don't want any splash on. You get some structure by doing this. You could also fix the highlight by taking some e.g toilet paper wet it a little and wash of some of the colour.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/Mindflaw/various%20drawings/pear03.jpg

Just do simple stuff in the beginning like imagine your dream house draw it or draw a still life or several.

Ps: one more thing to master watercolours you need to understand and know how to control the flow of the water one of the reason why you should draw on papers that wet, semi wet and dry, and draw in wet in wet, wet on dry paint etc.

[Rebecca]

youre, right...thinking about how expensive they are, isnt apropriate, (but my mum, SHEEEESH!! she will kill me if i ruined then) :tihi:

aye, well, big deal, thanks Mindflaw, that really helped

[Rebecca]

do poster paints have the same results, with the salt, i mean? :^^:

[Rebecca]

imagine how long it mustave took to paint this :nohope:
crazy mental illusion (http://www.ebaumsworld.com/supercoolpicillusion.html)

[Wafflehouseninja]

This is the way i work.

Make a light pencil drawing of what ever it is.
If its frim life or ref i just do a basic out line of objects.
If its from my head i try and draw in where the shadow shapes and high lights should be.

Thin wash. wait till dry......
Thin wash. wait till dry......
Thin wash. wait till dry......
Thin wash. wait till dry......

I need to work more on my blending right now i cant. at all.

so here is one o my works.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v412/Waffleninja/P1010006.jpg

[Mindflaw]

but my mum, SHEEEESH!! she will kill me if i ruined then

Well if your mum gets mad with you because your learning, then remind her about all the diapers you (I guess) ruined before you were potty trained :S . I guess you mom thought it was totally natural that you ruined all those expensive diapers and didn't get mad before you learned. Man tell your mum the awful truth that any painting medium takes effort and endless failures to learn :^^;:

I haven't tried poster paints but... the best way to learn is to test it. You don't need a lot of colour to test it just paint a little area and pour some salt on it voila question answered :) I guess it would work as long as theres enough water and colour pigments for the salt to absorb and eh not to absorb. remember that the good thing with textures made with salt are that they are quite random.


wafflehouseninja: Hey looking good...what size is it?

[Rebecca]

yep, it does look like my mother's the one who needs to learn, and heck, i used them anyway, and she DID go mad, however i think im getting better :tihi: