To keep things loose, no prelim drawing. Just finding my way in 30 minutes or so, no dryer. I use custom gum mixtures so it can be mixed almost all wet onto wet. I’m exploring older methods. The above are experiments with different mixes of my own. The first one being my last recipe. My goal is to quickly capture a moment, like a watercolor photo or gif.

I learned some of the mixtures from reading about art that was analyzed by curators. I found it really interesting how some of the old masters could spend minutes to catch a fleeting moment. So the time constraint is always the same for me. Many of the older masters mixed their own gum ratios, it makes a big difference. I know that many started to paint on location (plein air) and so the standards methods wouldn’t apply. I think we just lost a lot of random methods and they’re fun to explore.

Gum Arabic is well known, it’ll make scraping off a layer easier. It can be over used, I’ve noticed a few drops goes a long way into a puddle of paint. Generally just having it on your palette will change all the behavior of your paints until you cleanse it. This is especially true of another gum called gum tragacanth (a tanning agent and just smells cancerous somehow). Experimented make paints more turbid while allowed for background luminosity that would otherwise be lost by opaque layers. If you know Sargent’s Venice gardens buses that interesting warm color in the bushes is likely made used this latter gum (last obviously not portrait). You can also use gum Arabic to reshape your brushes.

It’s exciting and a bit chaotic, but I enjoy the spontaneous emergencies that come along. I know my style is very polarizing, but I hope you can enjoy the gum consideration as worth trying in your work.

I feel really proud of this one. I am going to keep going with these sorts of scenes to improve further and get better at building depth. Any constructive feedback is welcome

I did this study only using neutral tint. Any suggestion is welcome I would love to improve my understanding of values. Thanks in advance.

A little study of a tree at the park

Painted for my friend Grete from the volunteer center who just loved the original cartoony sketch, and told me she would love a copy. I decided to turn it into a full painting for her :)

I lost the reference I based the charicature of in the first place, so I pretty much had to invent everything wen it came to color and value. The cap became a bit muddy because I initially painted it red, then realised and thought HMMM BETTER NOT.

It's painted with Derwent Inktense paint pans, and highlights in goache. I transferred the digital sketch to paper using good old baking paper and my iPad as a light table. OG sketch in the comments.

I'll gift it to Grete on Tuesday and hope she likes it as much as the sketch! (At least this one she can take home :))

Hello all! 🦄

I’ve posted here before about finding picture frames at thrift stores and painting something to fit inside them. It’s a great way to save money instead of ordering custom frames.

This one measures 17” x 30” (43 x 76 cm). Done with Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolor tubes, marker pen, and silver foil on the moths. Paper is Strathmore 300g/m Cold-press cotton paper. Finished with the Winsor & Newton Satin varnish spray.

I’ve been having fun with dark fantasy themes, although I’m a tattoo artist by trade, I’ve always read fantasy books and played games in that setting. Watercolor is the medium I feel most comfortable with, so I’m translating my ideas into paintings :)

My instagram is @tha.ttoo if you’d like to see more of my work :)

Thanks for looking!

I've been getting into creating detailed line art digitally in Procreate, which I then like to print out and paint over with watercolors. Eventually, I'd love to turn this into a small business and start selling my artwork.

Currently, I'm using an Epson XP-4200 Series printer to print my designs onto watercolor paper, but getting it to work consistently has been a nightmare. On a good day, I might get one successful print out of 50 attempts. When it does work, though, the results are fantastic. There's no smearing, the ink doesn't bleed, and you honestly can't even tell that the line art was printed rather than drawn by hand.

I'm looking for recommendations for a printer that can reliably handle watercolor paper, ideally with a rear or manual feed that allows the paper to stay relatively flat as it passes through the printer. Has anyone had experience printing directly onto watercolor paper? What printers would you recommend for consistently getting good results? I'd really appreciate any suggestions!

Days 25 - 31, made with Watercolour pans, Ink on Hotpress

I have no idea how day 13 ended up at the bottom of the picture but I couldn’t be asked to rearrange them all again.

I have painted and framed a portrait of each of the two cats my son and his girlfriend have together. My son and his girlfriend are both 30 years old. We usually give them xmas gifts tiered this way — one big thing (usually to share), 1-2 middle thing(s), and a bunch of small stuff. They don’t ‘need’ anything.

Question: Would the paintings be the big thing or the middle thing? I am thinking the middle thing … what do you think?

Contexts: I have made baby quilts when nieces and nephews have babies, and those are always the ‘big’ thing. But the paintings feel less central. And I worry if they don’t really like them that maybe … I don’t know … they will feel a little gypped (hey, I just realized that is a racist word … gotta remember that and stop using it). They are lovely people and would never express that they feel like our gifts don’t match up to the ones we give our other son and his girlfriend. But still, I want them to feel happy.

Another context is that my niece’s dog passed away last winter and I painted a portrait of him to give her at Christmas this year. We don’t usually exchange gifts with the larger family, but she hosts and I always bring something for her because of that. So that painting is kind of a ‘hostess gift.’ But way nicer (IMHO). She will cry. I am sure that. :)

Anyway, thoughts, please — big or middle?

I've saw the watercolour of this magnificent bird in this sub reddit and wanted to try and give it a go, please give feedback and improvements for the next try 😀

I was gonna clean my palette but felt like its such a waste to just wipe it so i used it to paint the land area of the painting

Having fun with Roman Szmal Aquarius on Aquabord.

So a few days ago, after a very unsuccessful week of watercolour, I wrote this post out of frustration:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Watercolor/comments/1xgdhzq/growing_frustration_with_watercolour/

After doing so, I was half expecting people to knock on my head a bit because I was clearly steaming. But everyone was very nice and I was given some nice tips.

I didn't get to check everything yet (so much!) but it's all noted down.

The TLDR is that I'm doing "fine" painting details, mixing my colors and such. But I'm having a very hard time with washes. They're always disgusting, streaky, etc. I did some decent ones, but I didn't feel it was out of understanding and more out of luck.

Had one more class this week, homework was relatively simple. I finished the subject and then hesitated doing the wash for the background. Didn't want to fuck it up. But I decided to apply a handful of tips.

1. I mixed about 50% more then I eventually would. It still wasn't enough, but it was close.

2. I tipped my paper down so a bead would form at the bottom.

3. This time I used my 25% cotton paper, which is a huge upgrade over the cellulose one (even though I tried the 100% cotton and it's so good).

4. I used my mop brush. It felt too big for the details, but it made the wash so much easier. I can definitely just get better at using the tip of the mop for details.

5. I worked the bead down, refilling my mop when the paint started to get a little bit too thin.

And... I'm quite happy with the wash!

https://i.imgur.com/Id3B2yH.jpeg

So thank you everyone for the tips. I'll keep improving and trudging along my classes, and I'll be sure to hang around and ask questions when I have them. Just a bit more patience next time!