Positive impact of drawing and sketching
As much as we want everything immediately these days, skills and abilities take time and practice. Starting with drawing and sketching is a great way to understand what painting consists of. It’s easy to learn principles of good composition and potential color combinations using your sketch. It becomes visible right away what to keep and what to omit which is very important.
Black pen outline and big paper
Using black pen or ink outline enables beginners in watercolor painting get good results faster. The black outline indicates clearly where you go with watercolor paint. I would always recommend using big and large watercolor paper for this task. The smallest size paper which yields good results is 11 x 14” and 12 x 16”. On a tiny painting, there’s no space for many important aspects of painting.
Good quality watercolor paints
Practicing watercolor paint application is very useful for anybody who intends to try watercolor painting. Having a decent size paint wells is a must. The tiny half-pans do not allow getting enough paint to cover larger area, paints bleed into each other and get polluted. To correct any unintentional or wrong spots use paper towel sheet, good quality paper towel.
Layering and lifting watercolor paint
Watercolor becomes lighter as it dries, therefore, it can be necessary going over with more paint layers. When the previous layer is dry, the next layer will not disturb anything you painted before. Lifting watercolor paint is a very useful technique, and we usually apply it frequently. The one thing you don’t want on your watercolor painting is streaky and uneven coverage with undiluted paint blobs.
Building skills with drawing and sketching
Drawing and sketching teach us many aspects of painting, and not only watercolor painting. While many beginners believe it’s a waste of time, I strongly disagree. You paint as you have drawn and visualized whatever your subject. It also helps avoiding mistakes. Plus, it’s a fantastic practice. Drawing and sketch can be framed just as paintings. Drawing and sketch is also your best reference for painting.
P.S. Due to my health conditions, I didn’t post anything for a long time. As my health improves and pain decreases, I certainly hope the next post will follow quite soon, not after a year.
Good to see you back posting about your love of drawing and painting.
Thank you very much!
It was a very tough time, and I am extremely happy to return to art.
How are you dear Inese? Seeing you after a long time. Happy seeing you again 🙂
Thanks! Slowly recovering from what was the worst year for me. I’m looking forward to creating more art and better times.
So glad to see you back and to hear you’re feeling better. Loved this post, great tips ❤️😊🎨
Thanks Maria!
This is a big achievement for me, publishing finally a post. While the photos didn’t want to look right, I am very happy with these sketches.
I hope my tips can help somebody who is on the way to create something in watercolor.
Dear Inese,
I love how you explain and demonstrate your creative process step by step. And I love to see the end result. Your drawings and paintings are beautiful.
I’m sorry to hear about your health problems. It’s very difficult and depressing to live in a body that is not well. I wish you continued healing.
All the best,
Tanja
Thanks very much Tanja!
I am very satisfied that there is improvement. Long way to go still, but I have started to function.
Just like always, photos are not completely correct, the left side in the image has sloped down.
Anyway, I appreciate the great description of my painting process. Basically, all of these are demos for art classes.
Have a great weekend!
I think you are the only one who sees problems with the photos, Inese, they look good to me.
I’m glad you are getting better. I wish you a good weekend also!
Well, the perspective is not right, the left side is lower than it is on the sketch and colors are way more yellow all over. I try to edit that to some extent, but not successfully.
We have the long weekend. I replanted some room flowers, but chipmunk destroyed whatever was left outside. Attractive, small, but very nasty animal.
I have to do a lot of catching up with everything.
Thanks for your comment!
I have a friend who also has problems with chipmunks and ground squirrels eating or digging up her garden. I understand how frustrating that can be. We put a fence around part of our property because the deer were eating every plant we were trying to grow. Somehow, we have to coexist.
I hope you can get caught up!
Take care,
Tanja
Chipmunks are the worst. Initially I blamed squirrels, but later I caught chipmunk in action.
It’s interesting that we never had such gardening problems in Latvia.