Paint a Pretzel BunThis week we are going to paint a few buns and rolls. The idea behind repeating these exercises is to learn to create not just simple round shapes in watercolour but also to show slight variations within the a seeming round surface.
You can use masking fluid for smaller sharp edged bits and pieces. |
Paint a Chailah RollIf you have problems seeing colour as tonal values, I would suggest for this illustration that you get a photo of a Chailah Roll and print it in black and white. Or if you paint from real life use a tonal value scale to see where each tone lies between 0-10.
It is due to the tonal value that this watercolour is getting its 3D effect. |
Paint a Whole Grain RollOur last day of rolls and buns, the whole grain roll. You can work the lightest areas by using masking fluid.
Note that sharper more square like forms are added in comparison to yesterday's buns, where the surface was much softer altogether. It is important to study each colour and its shapes to understand the main pattern. |
Paint a Faverolle RoosterI love chickens, so we will be painting some roosters and chickens this week of some special breeds. We begin with the Faverolles Rooster, a french breed in the vicinity of Faverolles. In watercolour you begin with the lighter colours and work your way into the dark. To create the grey, don't just use black, because we can see a more violet grey and another more green. Grey is mixed with all three primary colour but most blue, then red and last a little yellow, plus lots of water so that the paper can create the lightness.
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Paint a Wild FloralChoose a simple flower shape and go wild today. For the splatter effect use an old tooth brush and dip it into the paint and flick. Test it on another sheet before to understand how soft or hard the drops will be with your particular tooth brush.
You can see in the dark violet red sections that the colour was allowed to run down the paper. |
A Bowl of StrawberriesAhhh, strawberries what delight. To make the strawberries appear three dimensional watch the that there is a light area almost in the middle of the berry followed by a brighter saturation band (meaning a brighter band of colour before the more duller and darker shadow colour is applied. Decide which dots you want to mark with masking fluid before you start to keep some of the smaller dots white without a fuss.
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Paint Chocolate ToffeesSorry, can't help myself. Yesterday's painting was so inspirational and I could not get off the chocolate part today either. The forms in themselves are pretty simple, so the curling effects, dots or lines on each chocolate toffee. You just need to get a natural toffee colour. Also watch that the spirals are aligned in a way that you can see that you see more of the top in the from and more of the side of each Toffee at the back. That creates a good 3D effect.
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Paint a Graylag GooseThe greylag goose, not to be confused with grey legs, is an ancestor of the most domestic geese and the largest and bulkiest of wild geese native to the UK and Europe.
Please note how the lower part of the goose is softer which you can achieve by adding several layers of yellow pinkish watercolour on top of the feather indications, rather than drawing the feathers on top of an underpainting. |
Paint a PearA simple pear will do today. Enhance the dimensional form by watching carefully where the line between the light and the shadow areas are. Also not the highlights that are lying near or above curvatures.
When adding the little spots, please don't make the too dark, which is the most common problem with beginners. It is likely that the tonal value is lighter than you think. Also note the wonderful hard edge surrounding the pear. |
Paint some MushroomsToday I want you to buy some different kind of mushrooms for today and tomorrow'a paintings. Even if you just one each.
Study the different surfaces. When adding the darker details in the stump, be careful not to overdue the colour, but rather stay a little lighter in colour than you think. |
And again MushroomsOne last day of our mushroom trip. By now you should have learned or overcome one of the most common mistakes that beginners tend to do.
Namely when details on surfaces appear that are darker than the rest like on the stem of the mushroom, beginners tend to go overboard with the darkness of those details. The tonal value is often far lighter than expected. |
Paint a Cat PortraitWhen painting a rather complex texture it is best to squint your eyes and look for the main underlying colour of each section. The area above the nose right up to the ears for example has a greyish calm undertone upon which we have only a few smaller segments of darker colours. Really much less detail than the right side of the brain believes to be there, counts for the yellowish area underneath the left ear. There is only little detail if you see it simplified.
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