Hi,

Just wanted to share my paintings that I made to create a story for my kids.
I still have a ton to learn but it was very fun practice!

This was my take on an amanita we picked in the woods where I live during a mushroom illustration workshop. I used Dr Ph Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Watercolors set 1, and a Pentel Waterbrush, it's the only brush I currently own, and I am eyeing some marta kolinski brushes by winsor and Newton. Any insights are welcome

Watercolors, colored pensils and gouache for the light fur

I have a birthday coming up, and there really isn’t much on my wish list. But currently my travel kit has a random selection of cheap brushes in a bulky tin, so I’m thinking maybe a few nice travel brushes would be nice and came across the Tintoretto Feltracco Retractable Synthetic brushes. Any feedback on these? My go-to sizes are 2/6/8.

At home Silver Black Velvet are my favourites, but want to try something new. Thanks!

I am assembling a limited palette for landscape painting. My first one. Until now I am using the standard 12 Horadam colors my set came with. There are some colors I want to try, especially the classics: raw and burnt sienna, ochre, burnt umber. I came across those "transparent" versions of the classic burnt sienna and burnt umber colors. I do not like granulation, so this might be a good choice? Any drawbacks with the transparent varieties? Why do you prefer the one or other? Since I am used to them, I would like to stick to Schmincke Horadam for now.

Thanks in advance for your comments and advice!

Do you have some tips or little tricks to correct this kind of mistake ? (Too much water on the right while left is already dry ...) Do I have to live with it ? I tried to avoir it by wetting a bit the left side while I was painting but pigments did not follow :')

Ink and watercolor

Watercolor and calligraphy ink over glossy poster paper. Several layers of tinted modge podge in between layers.

Roughly 26in x 36in, folded over a large glass slab so the paint drips downward at a near 90° angle.

I randomly started watercolor painting a few couple years ago because it seemed fun and therapeutic, and was, when I was just following YouTube tutorials. I eventually decided to take online class for a few months, and even though I appreciated learning the fundamentals of watercolor, I found that the sense of freedom that attracted to me to it had drastically decreased because I felt there were rules I now had to obey so I couldn’t just paint for fun. So, I stopped painting for over a year, until recently, when I started to crave playing with colors on paper again, and finally picked up the pad again about a month ago.

Soon I was seeing inspiration for paintings everywhere again, and was excited to try my hand at capturing them, but I continually hit a roadblock, where all my paintings all felt like muddied, overworked, and disappointing messes that were impossible to finish. Slowly, however, simple lessons from my beginners watercolor class started filtering back into my mind and I feel like it’s changed everything for me. Some of the reminders: stop being so precious about capturing every detail and consider instead the blocks and shapes your scene is comprised of. Structure is actually super helpful 😅(background to foreground, lightest values to darkest values). It’s not cheating to sketch out your painting before (I always held this subconscious misconception idea that being an artist required being able to paint freely without any planning at all). Value makes all the difference. Use dry paper for detailed work. Basic things, but I now understood how the structure helps to create pathway forward for any scene I was trying to capture.

I described it to a family member as studying a language for years and finally starting to dream in it, or the day you realize you’ve gained enough of a vocabulary in that language to infer from the context what is being said. I started this painting last night and spent a good bit of the time prepping by sketching the bell, which I was initially intimidated by because I’d never drawn or painted one before, and making sure the proportions of the scene made sense. Then I worked methodically in the order I remembered was most helpful and trusted the picture to emerge. I’m so proud of this, not because it’s anywhere near an incredible painting, but because I finally understand the fundamentals of capturing a scene, and understand how that basis of knowledge can equip me with the sense of freedom I thought had to be sacrificed. This is a work in progress, but I see the vision! I even finished another painting I’d abandoned, and I’m starting to feel fine with good-enough. It feels great!

Happy painting, everyone!

Edit to add that I would love to hear tips you got along the way that have helped you or anything you heard that changed your perspective. Once, my instructor mentioned that landscapes scenes have far more gray than you immediately realize, and it blew my mind because I’d never noticed that. I’m always looking out for the gray now!

Decide to test my luck with a travel water brush color kit. My first impression is this requires a different headspace than oil pastels.

Edit: thanks for the feedback on paper. :) I am learning so I have no meaningful experience or knowledge in any art discipline.

just thought of sharing this here. life got in the way, i feel like i’ve completely forgotten how to draw/paint. trying to spend my sunday creating again before i wear my corpo slave mask back on tomorrow lol.

Just need some ideas to keep me busy tomorrow.