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verdantspiritart · 7 years

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i just started using watercolors, can you tell me about your process/share some tips?

Well first of all, congrats on trying watercolors! I’m by no means an expert yet but I’ll do my best to walk you through my process using some of the WIP pictures I have from previous pieces. There’s a ton to cover and I won’t get it all so feel free to ask more specific questions if you need help.

My first tip would be to play with whatever tools you have to figure out what feels right for you. If you don’t have any tools yet, I suggest the Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box (pictured below) since it’s really nice quality, comes with a water brush, and usually costs like $15-$25 depending on size/where you buy it. If that’s still outside of your price range, the first watercolors I ever did were with old crayola palettes and it worked out fine, it just took way more layers and time to get the color depth I wanted.

As for paper, I’m still looking for the perfect one but just make sure it’s watercolor paper (cold press means there’s a texture, hot press is smooth) or multimedia and not like, printer paper. As long as it’s relatively thick, it should be ok but might buckle when too much water is added.

Don’t worry too much about perfection when learning how to use your equipment. Make lines, blend colors, try making washes, etc. When I came back to watercolors, I mostly did a lot of meditative painting, where I doodled whatever felt right. Some of them even came out real cool looking??

When I sit down to do a more detailed piece or commission, I have a five-part process I pretty consistently use these days. It goes like this:

1) Traditional (or digital) sketch/concept phase. The below pic is from a pop-art commission concept where I really liked the flow of her hair.

2) Digital lineart (cleaning up/refining concept sketches)

3) Print the lineart and lightbox it to watercolor paper using either a hard graphite pencil (very light lines) or colored lead. I still lightbox with this ancient hunk of junk but you can even use a window or your computer screen (VERY CAREFULLY) to lightbox if you don’t have one.

Here’s what some of my pieces looks like after being transferred:

I think it’s important to note that you should keep a piece of scrap paper under your hand while working on the watercolor paper, since the oils in your skin can lead to areas where the paint won’t bind to the paper properly. I’ve had cases where I finished a background wash only to find an absolutely perfect thumbprint in the center of it.

4) Ink the lines. Make sure your pens are waterproof. If they’re not, I’ll talk about a way to get around that later so skip right to painting for now.

I used micron technical pens for the above piece. If you don’t know if you have waterproof pens, make a test chart like the one below. Mine involved copics, watercolor, and super heavy scrubbing to see how easily the pen came off when wet.

I’ve also “inked” after painting by using more concentrated lines of watercolor instead of actual ink. The below painting was too cute and pastel and I didn’t want to ruin it with black lines, so I used that technique here (along with some red pencil)

5) Paint! I’m not really consistent with this step but my main tip is: BE PATIENT! If you want flat blocks of color, wait until each wash is fully dry before moving on to one next to it. If you don’t, they’ll bleed into each other. This is also true when trying to create shadows with hard edges instead of soft blending. Not being patient enough is my #1 cause of “crap I have to start this over”.

(The weird coloration on the lines above is actually dried frisket I put over certain sections of the piece to protect them but it ended up being more of a hassle than anything else for this style of piece.)

So, what if you didn’t have waterproof pens? You can easily reverse steps 4&5 and paint first, wait for it to dry very well, and then ink (shown below).

The finished piece looked like this:

I hope this was helpful!

If you want to see any of my WIPs/ask me questions, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram.

Also, my commission slots are open and if you like my work and want to leave me a tip, you can always buy me a coffee :)

#watercolor tutorial #asks #watercolors #wips

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group4mapagpakumbaba-blog · 6 years

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A Blog about my “Memorable Day”

We are all been having a lot of good time with our friends; anywhere and anytime. On this day, 26th of January, a lot of unforgettable things happened and I swear it’s worth remembering! Because guess what? It’s my birthday! This day was memorable because the closest of my friends were able to attend my small celebration. The last time I was able to invite my friends on my birthday, was almost four years ago; my first year in junior high school, that’s why I was really happy! Even though the event was not so big, we were just as happy those people celebrating their birthdays in bigger venues! We sang our favorite songs on the “videoke”, reminisced our precious memories together and ate bunch of varied snacks and drinks all the way! And of course, I blew my birthday candle with my family and friends! Well, that happened last January 26th, 2018 and yes, I just had the best birthday with them!

~Russel Roxas

My Travel Experience in Taiwan

On January 26, 2018 its my second time going out of the country, After landing in Taoyuan Airport, I see the difference of the weather because it’s the coldest season there when I went outside in the airport it was 8 degrees and my hand is freezing and my jacket is really useless, The highway and streets in Taiwan is really great, there were no traffic at all, We paid 2000 NTD for our taxi to drop us at the hotel it was in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. After arriving in the hotel, we wandered around and went to the street market and we tried different kinds of street foods there and the best thing in Taipei is there were too many arcade places to go which is a dreamed place to go too. After spending the night, The first thing we went is going to mall to shops around, We went to starbucks too but it costs too much its around 600 pesos of 1 order of grande we bought 3 for me, my sister and my aunt. The next day we went to East Coast of Taiwan where you can see 2 different color of seas and different formation of rocks which is really refreshing after going to East Coast we immediately went to Jiufen the old street of Taipei that looks like places in Kung Fu Panda movie, for me it’s the best tourist attraction there, and lastly we fly lanterns in Jiufen you can write anything you want since we don’t know how to write in mandarin we used alphabet letters of course and it was so much fun, Even now I can remember the differences of culture of a Chinese and a Filipino.

~Rjay Guevarra

“Beautiful Mess”

We all know that we are not perfect, right? As a normal person, I know to myself that I’m not perfect. Every single day, when I woke up, I feel like a mess. The reason why? All I know is, I can’t do things correctly, like, every single thing.

I’m that type of person wherein I really try my best on everything, because I don’t want to disappoint them or anyone. I’m saying this because of my experience to my friend. I really tried my best to be a good friend to her but it seems that I was not enough for her. That’s why I feel like a mess, but then when I’m with my family and other friends, I’m a beautiful mess and with purpose at all.

~Dyane Josef

Practice

I never really like practicing. I mean, I don’t I hate it. I’m simply just bored doing it. Does that mean I’m lazy? “Practice makes perfect” they say. But not everything is perfect after you practiced a lot! We make mistakes, many of them. Practice is interesting, you’ll never know what will be the result of your hardwork. To see it, you have to work. How did I took an interest in Practicing? Here’s my story.

It began with a simple sketch when I was 6 years old. I was barely sketching for about an hour or so. Doing things to company myself as I waited for my Dad to come home from work. Mountains, a Rainbow-- some clouds too. Nothing special, just a sketch. My mom looked at my drawing, looked at me in awe as if I have drawn a masterpiece. She told me too practice more to get better but I rejected. I really was a lazy butt at that time. 2 years passed, I started drawing as a hobby. I used to copy cute characters from the stickers I bought from school and put it on my very first sketchbook. Mom even caught me getting a fragile cup with a character design on it and try to draw it. On my 8th birthday, my Uncle JunJun came to visit us and see if we are doing well. I was busy trying to straighten my lines to beautify my sketch of Blossom of the PowerPuff Girls. He saw me coloring it and he told me to practice more to get better.

When I turned 12 and already graduated from Elementary School, I had the urge to draw more. I wanted to try new things by myself and explore my medium. I quickly get a pencil and draw, ideas running through my brain. But still, the result is the same as ever. I sighed, I kept blaming my hand for not cooperating with my brain. Whatever I want to draw from my brain, I can’t do it. I always thought of how artist think and draw just from thinking the picture they want to do. I was getting desperate to find my drawing skills. After finishing my homeworks and projects, I will then watch on Youtube to watch drawing tutorials. I find it fun for some reason, learning new techniques, explore my medium and many more. Self study is my only choice. No one in my family knows how to draw except for my Dad who is always busy from work. 2 years, I practiced--not too much. But this time, I was getting hardcore. Before I go to sleep, everytime I had lunch break or I have nothing to do, I draw and draw. My chance in improving is getting bigger, the result of my hard work is showing to me naturally.

Now, I am 16, I had multiple mediums I am used to like, poster making, watercolor, digital drawing, semi-realistic, impressionism, and acrylic painting. It was a long journey and I had to face hardships just to reach my goal. All I had to do is practice, do my best and never give up. And most importantly is to have trust in yourself. Now that I see my improvement, I will explore more and do more of it and be able to express my feeling to others using my art works. Practice doesn’t always make perfect but always make you better than before.

~Adrieanna Casaul

FAMILY IS OUR GREATEST TREASURE

Our family is the greatest treasure that we could cherish for the rest of our lives. Our family give us moral values and they are the ones we can call our true friends. They are the ones we can trust and can stand by our side even if theres a great problem or struggles that lures us in our deepest fears but no matter what happen they are guiding you to become stronger and smarter in any situation in our life. So lets cherish every moment that we have with them we never know when its time to say goodbye. Goodbyes are more painful if we have words that can tell them we need them the most as they need us.

~Edgar Guillermo

Beautiful Girl

This Story is Based In Real Life, Let Me Tell You The Story About This Little Girl That Got My Heart Beat Again In a Very Short Time that We’ve Met,That Type Of A Girl That I’ve Liked Not Because Really On The Looks But What’s The Inside Of That GirlIs The Most I’ve Liked,If She Gave Me a Chance To Prove Myself To Her I’ve Liked To Give My Best to Show That I’m Sincered To Court Her And I’m Just Willing to Wait For Her To Be Ready Again For Another Relationship, And If The Destiny Ruin My Plans I Don’t Have a Choice But To Accept It,Atleast I Try My Best To Get You!,And If You Not Chose Me It’s Okay For Me,If That’s The Case That Makes You Happy I Will Not Bother You Anymore!

~Jed Gealon

Depression

An unintentional act you did that make your life got worst, because you have a something hiding inside you that they didn't know that they might judge you or give mercy upon you which you don't want to happen. A simple giving an attention to you can give a possitivity to build up your strong personality you have, but they didn't give it that's why you always think that you are useless and a numb person who can't understand easily. That feeling can be a depression which is a common and serious mental illness which can lead you to the negativity affects in how you feel and act. This kind of illness suddenly be lead to suicide stage in this stage you think that no one can help you to overcome this kind of depression you only think that only killing your self will solve all the problems that encounter in your life.

~Kimberly Ngo

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