Thanks for your kind words. You are such a positive and supportive person. And a darn good artist too.
Regarding the rose drawing and those leaves, you are right that the proper range of values is missing. I’ve not been happy with them and the problem is the reference photo just had a “hard to distinguish” cluster of leaves in the lower right corner. I felt the composition was unbalanced so I tried to fake it by adding in some more on the lower left - and guessed what the leaves looked like on the right. What I really need to do is take some more time to pull out another photo reference that has real leaves from a rose plant. When I work realistically, I must have a detailed reference photo to work from or it’s not going to look right, as you discovered with this drawing.
Thanks for sharing your opinion. Another set of eyes is always a good thing.
WOW!! Thank you, I didn’t see! I am truly grateful to you for suggesting me to send it, and especially to Matt for taking his time and talk about it . It couldn’t come in a better time. It is a HUGE encouragement for me, in a time I needed it the most.
Thank you so much Sonia. This was with 0.1 fineliner but then for roof and bricks I used 0.05. it’s A5 size (UK sizing). Haven’t thought about drawing bigger yet just because of portability… I use A5 size so I can easy put in bag and carry with me
Very nice this is Diana. I love the combo of pencils and watercolor and I especially love the highlighting on hands and face. How long did this take you to do?
Thank you for your words:
the pencil drawing of Einstein, using one of his photos, took me about 2:30h.
The coloring was is two fazes: first the Caran d’Ache and Faber Castell watercolor pencils for the face and hands. Obviously after coloring I activated them with water. Actually done small sections at one time. This took about 2-3h. Finally everything else (background, clothes and hair). That was some “masking fluid”, watercolors and a bit of white Dye. That was about one more hour. I hope it helps
I thought I saw a post from you a few days ago where you did just a line drawing, and another version with watercolor. This was the one with the headstones. I didn’t have time to look at it on my computer when you posted (which I like to do before commenting). Anyway, I just tried to find the post, with no success.
Working from memory, my initial thoughts were that you may want to work on mixing the green, so it isn’t so vibrant / more realistic looking. I think the color of the building was fine. If I remember correctly, I thought you might want to play with the opacity of the watercolor applications, with part of it being thinner and selected areas having a more concentrated application of pigment. Sometimes this is best done by applying the watercolor in layers, starting thin and building up where desired. Or subsequent layers could have a slightly modified hue to make the colors more interesting.
Does this make sense?
You might find it helpful to watch the 10th and final Live Lesson of the Line and Wash - boat at a dock - that was just recorded Wed, November 20th. The finishing of the dock in particular in this lesson nicely shows what I’m talking about with the layers.
You did see it Terri - but I deleted it, but happy to upload again. Everything you say makes total sense. Thank you so much. My friend who wanted the drawing was very happy with it for the purpose of their christmas cards so that made me happy. For myself though I am not 100% happy with it and to be honest, think I am going to forget the watercolour route as I just can’t get the hang of it and just frustrating. Preferring pen and line work to be honest as I seem to be excelling in that medium (Well I hope so anyway)
The scan i did of the watercolour to be honest came out too bright and looks more like what I posted below… but too late now.
Thanks for help and advice - i do appreciate it, but probably giving up watercolour anyway
I do like the one without color better also, but that may be because that is what you have the most practice doing. Then again, I do often prefer B&W myself.
I personally like watercolor a lot as a media (ether with or without the line drawing), so if you ever want to give it a try again sometime, I’d be happy to give you some coaching. But just like everything, there is a learning curve, and you need to plan on giving it some extra time as you learn.
I’ve tried loads and loads over the last 3 years and some pen and watercolour I have done I love (see below) and think I’ve got it down and then a lot of times it just seems I can’t paint.
Don’t want to fool myself thinking I’m good at watercolour when I’m not, so I need to have realistic expectations of what I can actually do and where I’m growing. But to be fair my pen work goes up and down as well and today I can’t even draw.
Don’t mean to be so negative about all this, just trying to lower my expectations of what I can actually achieve.
I hear you Dan. We all have up and down days. Drawings or paintings abandoned or thrown away. Others that we finish but just don’t like. Maybe tomorrow will be more productive.
We all do that to ourselves, and you are no exception. Your watercolor is beautiful. Your own standards seem to be conflicted by your own perception of your own art. As Terri said to me. “Nobody saw your process, so the finish product is what matters” or something like that (quoting is clearly not my forte). When looking at your black and white and watercolored one NOT t side by side, they are both unique and beautiful. I think you’re fooling yourself thinking you’re not good at watercolor when in fact you are. Capiche?
Also each piece of the set of watercolors you posted is gorgeous
Sonia
Here’s a 5x5.5 pastel pencils study of my own reference picture I took of a barn I pass every day on my way to work or any other time I go anywhere really. I live in a small town. This one was moonlit. I love the bales of hay anytime they make them
Thank you so much for replying. I’m feeling a lot better about things today. Yesterday seemed to be a down day and realised I was exhausted after a very long week working… Woken with fresh eyes and I’m back to my optimistic self thank you both for encouragement. Appreciate it.
But to be fair I’m loving pen work right now and I’m putting a lot of time into that so makes sense if I want to get better at watercolour I need to put more time in
But I just love the simplicity of the pen as I’m out and about a lot and travel a lot… Putting more work into my pen and ink art is attractive as it suits my life currently. And I just love black and white pen work.
