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.