Placid Painting

Finally!

Some form of progress in my watercolour painting.

First of all; this painting is based on a turotial video by Tim Wilmot, just so it’s noted.

And, to be honest, I think this is the first watercolour painting I’ve made where I’ve really worked with different layers.

First of all; there’s a lot with this painting I’m not that pleased with.

The background wash could have had stronger colours. Especially for the water.

I think some of the boats are too dark, and some are too light.

The small shack to the left could have looked a bit more real.

The man could not have ended up transparent.

And so on….

BUT, let’s not dwell on that.

Because this is the first watercolour painting I’ve made that actually looks like a watercolour painting (or, at least, the kind of watercolour painting I want to make).

Since I know nothing about watercolour painting, and the terms used about the different techniques, let’s put it this way:

This is the first time I’ve added a background wash and used it actively in the second layer.

It’s the first time I’ve been able to paint more loosely, and not care too much about the details.

It’s the first time I’ve been able to paint a building that’s got a “watercolour style” to it.

And, not to forget, this is the first painting where I’ve managed to stop in time, and not overwork it.

Right after I finished it, I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not.

Then I left it and came back, and I was able to appreciate a lot of things in it.

Now I’m very excited about getting back to the watercolour paints, as I feel I made a small breakthrough.

Even though the good sessions often are followed by some really poor ones…

But let’s keep at it anyway!

Since I made this painting in the daytime, I also took the opportunity to make a little time-lapse video 🙂

Here it is:

This is a digital watercolour painting I made one evening, when I didn’t know what to paint..

So I started with a random background wash, which I think ended up quite interesting.

I then tried out a few options with the pen tool, to see what would work.

I couldn’t decide which one I liked best, so I just uploaded them all 🙂

If you’ve in any way followed this blog the resent month, you may have noticed that I’m trying to learn to paint using watercolour.

The first try did not go well

The second try went a big better

The third try was a small setback

And now it was time for my fourth attempt…

So, for hours I sat drawing a suburban brick building from one of my tutorial books.

This was going to be my best work yet.

So I first finished the pencil drawing.

After an hour or two, finishing it up, I did a couple of hours of pen work to get in what I thought was the most important details.

As you can see, I used a ruler to draw the structures of the building.

In retrospect I regret it.

The straight lines take away any personal touch from the drawing, and it makes it look way to “correct”.

It’s almost like it becomes worse the more work you put into it. Because all the ruler work makes the not so straight lines look bad.

It also takes away the chance of those happy mistakes, which often turn out to be the best part of the drawing or painting.

Anyway, it was now time to put some paint on it. And this time it was NOT going to get too dark again.

So I drew up some areas that I wanted to leave untouched by paint, using it as highlights.

I then did a very light blend of black and white to add to the sky, a bit darker for the buildings and pavement, and an even darker one for the people on the street.

I then set to work with my loose plan.

Soon enough I started adding paint here and there on a whim.

Then I tried correcting it, which added paint to the areas I had planned to leave untouched.

Then I started to paint over the paint before it had dried, because I got stressed out about ruining it.

Then it all became to dark, so I tried just adding more water to lighting it up.

Then I panicked and just startet adding blue colour to the top of it, making it flow downwards and hope it made a cool effect to the sky.

Then I saw that it didn’t work.

Then I just painted over the whole thing with water in frustration.

Then I thought; I might as well take a picture for this post.

Then I god depressed and threw it in the trash.

Learning watercolour painting is starting to get annoying…

But I have no intentions giving up.

This is the result of a quick, digital watercolour session last night.

I didn’t know what to paint, so I just startet with the blue background to get some kind of start.

Then I added the people, the distant mountain and the snow.

I think it’s ok, but I feel it’s lacking something exciting.

Something to draw attention to it.

I don’t know what it could be, but I guess that’s just how it is sometimes.

I think it was fun dabbing in the snow, though. Which made a cool effect 🙂

I had a thought one day that I wanted to paint some dinghies in a glass.

A drinking glass, that is. With some ice cubes in it.

So I decided to give it a try in procreate.

I started by drawing the basic outlines of the dinghies.

Then I added some water using the watercolour option.

After painting the dinghies and adding some ice cubes I added a straw in the background to try and make it clear that it’s all happening inside a glass.

I think both the boats and the ice cubes look a bit static, and isn’t laying natural in the water. The straw is also standing to much out, I think.

The colour of the water looks pretty good, though. And it was great fun to just draw something straight out of my own imagination.

So what do you think? Is there anything to it?

By the way, this is a 30 second time-lapse video of the whole process:

 

My first attempt on painting (not just colouring) with watercolour went very bad.

My second attempt went a bit better, but still with lots of potential for improvement.

This is my third attempt, and an attempt I had about 45 minutes to get done. So I may have rushed it a bit..

Anyway, this time I wanted to get away from the beach and the city streets for a moment.

Out in the woods somewhere, where the air is fresh and the wind is blowing.

So I set to work making a light blue sky, trying to keep the colours light, and not overworking the paper.

I also made a layer with the same paint at the bottom of the paper, wanting to use it as reflections on a lake.

My next step was supposed to be painting some distant mountains, but I forgot…

So my next step was actually putting a distant forrest across the lake. Here I put some masking tape across the paper, just working the brush on top of it.

I have to admit that the whole process got a bit hasty, because I wasn’t all that happy with how it turned out.

That’s when I start to take rash decisions, to try and make it better as fast as possible.

In the end it looked ok, nothing more.

Removing the tape, I added some reflections in the water and started painting a little mud bank in front.

This is where the dark mistake happened again.

I started out with some green and brown paint, but it just didn’t look right.

So I took another rash decision, adding some black paint on top to try and cover it up.

Well, what do you know… it ended up too dark again….

And, as I’ve learned, you can’t go back on too dark paint when using watercolour.

I’m so used to painting with oils and acrylics that it’s clearly a hard lesson for me to learn…

Anyway, this is where I started to run out of time. But I did add a little tree in front. Very basic stuff, but it did add something to the whole look.

So, to sum up; another lesson learned, and I’ll go at it again real soon.

And, if I just crop out the whole mud bank from the photo, it looks a bit better as well. Go technology, right? 🙂

I’m currently trying to master watercolour as a painting medium, learning to use both water and paint in the right amount and in the right ways.

My last session did not end well, so what else to do than to get back on the horse and do another one?

This time I wanted to have a go at an old brick building, adding a few people on the street as well.

I also decided to leave the guiding lines of the building in the drawing. Maybe it would be a cool effect?

So I started out with this sketch:

First I painted the sky, adding some light blue paint with lots of water.

The result ended up quite nice, other than the two water spots on the left side of the paper (picture below).

So I acknowledged the mistake, moved on, and hoped to have more control of the water next time.

For the building and the pavement I added a light black colour, with some darker mixes for the people in front.

I think it turned out nice, but the tower in the back did not end up looking to good. So I tried adding some blue paint (on a whim).

That didn’t look to good either, so I kind of panicked and added some white on top to try and save something out of it.

It ended up like this:

Now, maybe this is the point where I should have stopped, adding some shadows to the people and fixing up the tower.

I did not.

I wanted the building to be red, and the pavement to be just a bit darker.

Also, I did some final pen work on the building, making the windows a bit sharper and strengthening some of the shadows.

On the right side of the building, however, I added some pen strokes to shadow the whole wall.

To many pen marks…, which did not end up looking to good either…

So I tried to cover it up with some black paint. It ended up… I don’t know what I think about it, actually. It is what it is..

The shadows of the people look kind of cool, though.

This is the final result:

The big question now is;

Should I have stopped at an earlier point, not overworking the painting?

I think the final result is ok, but I do not like the dark shade on the right side of the building.

On the left side there’s clearly been a accumulation of water, making the paint look smudged.

The tower in the back is also way to overworked. In the end it was like drawing on wet cardboard…

What do you think? 🙂

It’s not easy this watercolour medium..

But I’ll keep on going!