A to Z Challenge: W is for Watercolor : Re-Learning and Perfecting a New Medium (Part Two)

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Re-Learning and Perfecting a New Medium (Part Two)

In case you forgot, here is the the photo from Part 1 of this Watercolor series, my epic fail to success #1 illustration.  Let’s first make a list of where I went wrong:

1. I started off my first re-attempt at watercolor on a rather large illustration (nearly 9″ x 12″) that I wanted to make a portfolio piece (no pressure).
2. I didn’t research enough images for color schemes you might see below the water’s surface, and instead, started off with brown—what did I think I was painting, wood?
3. I neglected to start off going light to dark—as you are supposed to do with watercolors—so the whole thing ended up darker than it should have been.
4. The colors became muddy because I tried to fix it using too many layers of watercolor.
5. I didn’t test color intensity on a spare piece of paper before applying it to the finished drawing.
6. I had no image in my head of how I wanted the piece to look color scheme-wise before I began painting (similar to #2, but not quite the same thing).

There. That’s a pretty good list of where I went wrong. What did I do right? Not much—sad to say—but here’s the thing, I got my paints out and I started. Somewhere. Anywhere.

I may have failed the first time, but I tried, and I could admit the mistakes I’d made without giving up.

So what’s next?

As any who have worked with watercolor know, it’s not like acrylic or oil painting where you wait for it to dry, mix up new colors, and paint over what you did wrong. Watercolor is an unforgiving medium. Its difficulty lies within its transparent nature, allowing you to see what layers lay beneath. More often than not, if you look closely at a watercolor painting, you can still see the original pencil sketches underneath the painting.

So again, I repeat, what now? Remember when I mentioned I love my eraser? Totally useless here. So, I will bring in the big guns as they say: my handy-dandy LightTracer 2 12″x18″ Light Box, to aid me in my time of artistic need…

…and there you go, it’s almost like magic…

…almost. Let’s try this again.

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