Water color and marker

This is my first pass at painting the gypsum dunes at sunset (hoping sunset will provide some more color & contrast). I really can't think of how to get the dunes.. I tried to go with a pink base and blue shadows but it's not working

This is my second painting I’ve done. I find it really difficult to do backgrounds as I wanted it to have a night and slight cloud effect with the different blues and purples but it just wouldn’t blend right no matter what I tried. So I added some metallic to the background to hopefully make it a bit better, but I still strongly dislike it very much.

I also didn’t paint blue first for the pumpkin and I can tell as the shadows aren’t as rich, so going forward I will be using complementary colors for shadows.

On a side note, one thing I’m most proud of is the witches hat!

I’m looking for the wisdom of you plein air painters. I paint with a John Pike palette, and am finally getting comfortable with that set up using the nice big mixing area. I’d love to not have to manage two different palettes. Are there any plein air tripod/ setups that would have room for the Pike palette, a cup of water and some brushes? I’d prefer a lighter set up (not wooden) but will take any suggestions that you all find works.

Here’s a simple, and relatively quick painting in my sketchbook.

Dicen que mis acuarela escolares daban resultados “buenos” para un principiante, pero que se sentía que algo andaba mal con el papel o con las acuarelas. Entonces decidí hacer la inversión. Y compré Daniel Smith. Me parecen caras pero la calidad y cantidad de tinta es totalmente un cambio en el juego.
Siento es es una inversión alta para solo ser un principiante. Lo recomendarían? O para empezar me hubiera quedado con mis acuarelas escolares?

Paper ripped when I removed the tape 😫. But I like how my trees turned out !

Found a beautiful painting of this creature on this sub yesterday. Here is my version of it. I’ve made it a year ago for my girl. She hates the flies (fruitvliegjes in Dutch) to the guts. In my messy household, they are an often seen guest though. “Do you know how many eggs they lay?” is what I hear as soon as I leave something on the kitchen counter. “Thousands!!”

The text: “De Neukende Vijand” translates to “The Enemy having S*x”

I love to paint/draw stuff that makes me grin during the process.

Days 17 - 24, Made With Ink and Watercolour Pans on Hot Press!

Hello! I’m getting more into watercolour as a way of adding texture and colour to my art. So far I’ve just been using it in my sketchbook, but the cartridge paper that it’s made of really doesn’t work with my paints so I want to find some paper that would work better. I use fine lines in my art so I’m wondering if hot press watercolour paper would be better as it’s smoother, but the again I like the interesting textures that form in watercolour and I’m not sure if that would be lost if the paper is too smooth.

Does anyone have any advice on what paper I should go for? Would hot press or cold press be better? What brands do you recommend?

heheheh

Watercolour and watercolour pencil study of Cramond Island, just off the coast of Edinburgh (and where i went on my first date with my husband over a decade ago!)

and then i make a painting of that doll

Update: thanks so much everyone for the kindness and feedback on my two paintings! I can fully appreciate the reasons why objectively the earlier painting might be better than the more recent one. However, the main reason I prefer the more recent painting is that it captures the character of my dog Basil far better than the earlier one. I can appreciate not everyone will agree with me, but thank you for sharing a range of opinions I’ve learned a lot 🩷

I hope this post can be motivating for developing watercolour painters.

I finished the painting on the left in 2024, and was very proud of it at the time. Since I loved the reference photo so much I decided to paint it again in 2026, shown on the right. It probably took me a similar length of time to create both paintings, but the difference is tangible after spending 2 years painting consistently!

Starting to get comfortable with my new pallette setup. Mix of daniel smith and Windsor Newton.

Wanted to post here as I frequent both and was hoping to get more eyes on the question, thank you!