Mother Russiart

[Acklow]

I just finished another piece recently and am working on another one. Here is the first piece:

It is based on a photograph that my cousin took in Big Sky, Montana seven years ago while we were on a family trip. For reference:

Not perfect by any means of course, but the purpose of the painting was to practice using a sponge to create texture, as well as trying a couple of other methods with watercolor, such as putting down a layer of water on the paper prior to applying any paint, which is how I was able to give the sky its layered look.

The second piece is something I'm currently working on. It is an image of the protagonist in the manga, The Duke of Death and His Black Maid:

I wanted to try something a little different from all the landscape paintings I have been doing lately and wanted to try my hand at something a tad more cartoonish (I mean, if you look at my prior stuff using a tablet, that was most of what I did). The lineart was mostly me transcribing the image onto paper which is why it looks 10x better than if I were to actually try to sketch from memory, but hey, that's how you build skill (by copying other people's stuff lol)! The original image was completely black and white with some grey in the mix, but I plan on giving it a little more vibrance by including some green, purple, and maybe even a speck of red or two.

 

[HeaLnDeaL]

I just finished another piece recently and am working on another one. Here is the first piece:




It is based on a photograph that my cousin took in Big Sky, Montana seven years ago while we were on a family trip. For reference:




Not perfect by any means of course, but the purpose of the painting was to practice using a sponge to create texture, as well as trying a couple of other methods with watercolor, such as putting down a layer of water on the paper prior to applying any paint, which is how I was able to give the sky its layered look.

The second piece is something I'm currently working on. It is an image of the protagonist in the manga, The Duke of Death and His Black Maid:






I wanted to try something a little different from all the landscape paintings I have been doing lately and wanted to try my hand at something a tad more cartoonish (I mean, if you look at my prior stuff using a tablet, that was most of what I did). The lineart was mostly me transcribing the image onto paper which is why it looks 10x better than if I were to actually try to sketch from memory, but hey, that's how you build skill (by copying other people's stuff lol)! The original image was completely black and white with some grey in the mix, but I plan on giving it a little more vibrance by including some green, purple, and maybe even a speck of red or two.

I love the speckling that you have going on in the mountains!

Based on the in progress photo of the figure, I'm hypothesizing that you're using a tad bit too much water in your mixture OR you're wetting the paper first and then painting on wet paper. This later technique works great for backgrounds and wide areas of color, but for smaller areas like the many different colored blocks of your figure, it can lead to some of your lines being a bit fuzzy like they are now.

Depending on the strength and exact type of your paper and whether or not your using staining pigments in your paint, you may be able to take a clean brush, dip it in water, loosely brush over the spots where the pigment went outside the lines, and then use a paper towel to lightly press down and remove the pigment. This lifting technique can be great to fix up line qualities, add details, and sometimes can even be used for much more intentional practices (I often will paint my blue sky first and then lift out the clouds to reveal the white paper underneath).

On the figure's coat, you've done a great job leaving the white spots to showcase the buttons/folds/etc; really great! If you're ever dealing with areas that you want to "preserve" the white of the paper in small amounts, you can also consider using what is called "Frisket" or "Miskit" that is essentially a liquid rubber that can be applied to dry paper. I often take one of my less expensive brushes, sharpen the end with a pencil sharpener or knife or scissors or whatever and use the point to dip into the frisket or miskit to apply to the paper just like I'm drawing with a pencil. After the rubber dries, you can then freely paint around it and then rub it away when you're finished painting around that area (just don't rub it away when any of the paint around it is still wet). One of the benefits of frisket/miskit is that you can also use it to preserve a colored layer you're already painted, so it works with more than just the "white" (again, just make sure everything is dry before you use it).

Also sometimes you have to watch out with pencil lines and water color, since once the pencil is covered with pigment then it can't be erased. Usually I'll lightly sketch with pencil, then take an eraser and erase my lines so that only the faintest visible trace remains, which is more easily masked by the water color pigment. Your outlines are pretty light already, so that shouldn't be too big of an issue for you : )

I love watching you improve, keep up the good work!

 

[Acklow]

Thanks! I'll look into getting some of that liquid rubber since I have been struggling with trying to paint around spots I want to keep white. I'll be stopping by Michael's or Blick tomorrow! :)

 

[HeaLnDeaL]

When using the liquid rubber, also be careful not to leave the cap of the bottle off for too long or else it might dry out and you might be left with a hunk of useless dry rubber. I'll usually pour a little bit into one of my empty holes in my palette and then quickly put the cap back on. If you're ever transporting the liquid rubber (to and from school, for example) then putting it in a securely sealed plastic bag can help salvage the material in case of spills as well. Also don't let your watercolor be stored too close to something very hot, like a heater, when the rubber is still on the painting. Similarly, if you're accustomed to using the blow dryer technique to speed the drying process of your watercolors, this is incompatible with the rubber since heat will cause the material to fuse with the paper and won't let it come off (you can still use a blow dryer if you have the heat setting off and are just using the air I suppose though). And again, really important to apply/remove the rubber only when the painting is dry (or else it smears paint and in some case will actually mix with the pigment, causing a weird hybrid of rubber/watercolor that won't come off the paper).

All the above might make it seem scary to use, but it's really easy as long as you follow the rules. I hope you'll enjoy using it!

EDIT: Also, based on the texture of your new watercolors, it looks like you're using better quality paper than before and it's looking good! Less warping and more texture for the paper to grab onto ^^

 

[Acklow]

Here's where I am atm. I plan on using a sponge to remove some of the paint to help help the violet in the hat and the clothing to stand out. I also made a minor error in painting by forgetting to include leaves on the left vine of the swing, but alas I shall have to work with what I shall have to work with. In any event, It's coming together quite well, imo and I can't wait to complete it!

In other news, I just ordered a student value pack of Chinese Painting Rice Paper and Supplies so that I can actually paint Shan Shui. Also my aunt who painted in the past and does mostly hand-crafted work nowadays thinks I ought to practice my painting skills by using a much larger canvas so that I have more freedom to work on the paper. I probably will try that out down the road, but for now I'm practicing on the 23cm/31cm, 300 g/m2 Arches branded watercolor paper. Cheap watercolor paper sucks and so I will probably have to visit the Blick store that's an hour's drive away to get some good material.

 

[Acklow]

All done:

It took me as long as it did mostly because of my having been very busy the last couple weeks with few points in time that I was able to actually sit down and do the work. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. It's probably my most detailed work and took the longest to complete, even longer than a lot of the Photoshop stuff I produced in the past. I applied quite a few layers and not only that, I tried to reduce the amount of line art to bring out the color more.

One thing I would do to increase the clarity if I had the right tools and also the patience/steady grip for would be to do lineart with professional ink pens/markers. Otherwise, I know it has a bit of a sloppy look but that's mostly because a) I'm not too good at drawing people, even comic-based ones and b) I'm still learning! I probably will return to this piece down the road to do additional touch up, but for now I think I am satisfied with the outcome.


In other news, my Chinese Art set came in the postage:

I'm very excited to try this out, but before I even put my hands on it, I still want to do more practice with watercolor so that I can build more confidence in my strokes and use of colors.

 

[Acklow]

Haven't posted anything in a while mostly because I have been too lazy to share some of my other stuff. I'll post it in a while. This is my most recent work. Hope you all enjoy.