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You are here: Home / My Work / I’m learning a new skill – watercolor

I’m learning a new skill – watercolor

July 28, 2010 by Bob Borson 41 Comments

So believe it or not, I don’t know how to watercolor. It’s a little amazing to be quite honest that my bag is soooo full but I don’t have that particular skill. I’ve thought about ‘doing it’ lots of times – ’cause it looks so awesome on architectural sketches. A little splash here and a little wash there and *POW* awesomeness with no effort.

Right?

Probably not but I have known some people who were idiots jerks and they could watercolor pretty well so I figure, why not? So I went out to Michaels art store and bought some supplies and I am going to make some capital A R T!

the setting – my library

In the case of this particular post, this is where the magic is going to happen. So while everyone else was sitting in the adjacent room watching the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with the genius of Gene Wilder, I got ready to create….something.

the supplies

So I am starting modestly enough; a pad of watercolor paper, some paint brushes (came in a package of 5 ) and a tray of watercolor paints. I bought those paints from the children’s craft row – they were like $3. High quality? Doubtful and yes, I know I should probably invest a little more money into this but if I suck, I’d rather know without spending the money. Since I have no watercolor (or any other painting) skills, I don’t think the quality of my supplies is going to make a huge difference.

My sketch of a Lily

The subject matter is going to be a lily flower. Hopefully it looks like one to you – I didn’t, you know, like kill myself over drawing this but I don’t think it sucks either. Besides, this is going to be like the 3rd watercolor I have ever attempted, and the first in the last 20 or so years. I really have my new friend Jean Marie Drouet  to thank because his drawings and watercolors look so great and effortless that I just have to be able to throw a little color on the page.. (note to self:  set up online gallery on life of an architect site to sell future magnificent water color paintings).

shadows

The first thing I did was add a base layer of color – tone really. It seems reasonable to think that the shadows should go down first – that way if I add a little more color, it will be on top and won’t look muddy. I thought a real watery mix would work best, I wanted a translucent wash. And it turned out…..meh. Clearly there is some skill required but so far, not too bad.

highlights and color

A little bolder, less watery color is hitting the page – yeah baby! Okay, truth is, I wish I knew how to remove color after putting it down – I don’t really like the green stripe; it aligns too closely to the peduncle of the flower above and I can already sense some trouble. I start putting a little brown in my mix – not sure why.

uhmm…more highlights and color?

Here, I am attempting to deal with my green stripe by adding…..a little more green stripe.

What?!?

That doesn’t make any sense, I think I am starting to panic a little bit. More brown!!

background

Holy Moley! Bob – you jerk – What are you doing!!

Yes, it looks like I poured squid ink on my diminishing amazing watercolor (note to self: put a pin in that “selling the watercolor paintings” idea). I thought, still do actually, that a dark field around the white lily would set it off nicely. I just realize that my watercolor ‘wash’ skills are non-existent. I think I am going to have to set up some specific exercises to practice getting a decent wash of color.

.

The Final Product

So here is the finished product – it’s the same as the image before – it’s just dry now. It doesn’t completely suck but for anyone who can actually watercolor, it’s nothing to write home about.

But it can be yours for a very reasonable price.

 

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