Watercolor Studies

Reflections on Water
Watercolor Experiments

In the spring of 2010, I took an illustration class that finally taught me how to use watercolors correctly. Throughout primary and secondary school, I'd always have to buy a set of watercolor paints for art class, and as far as I can remember, we never really used them, and when we did, I hated how the colors turned out, because they were always so watery and uncontrolled. I didn't understand how watercolor artists could create such beautiful images, and was convinced that they cheated in some way, or sold their soul for water-bending powers. And yet, when I took this class, my soul stayed more or less in tact and I didn't have to cheat at all. I learned how to control water and create beautiful images with it. Here are samples of some of the work I did in that class.

An exercise in texture. I wanted to create rabbiAn exercise in texture. I wanted to create rabbit fur through suggestion rather than painstakingly rendering each hair, and I also wanted to make an interesting background, since I always struggle with backgrounds. My photo reference: www.free-extras.com/images/bunny-7780.htm

An experiment in memory recall. The assignment was to create a portrait of a friend or family member without using photo reference. Stylistic representation was acceptable. This is a stylized portrait of my baby brother, who is at least half a foot taller than me. So I'm always looking up at him. The color application was localized and more of a wash. Pen and ink created the outlines.

Watercolor with pen. An ocelot.

Red panda. An attempt at wetting the paper and applying color to let the image bleed. I gave in to my controlling tendencies for the eyes, nose and mouth, but I think the fur turned out really well.

Here I used a scrubbing technique with gouache. Instead of an additive process, you paint a large swatch of midtone color and scrub with plain water to create highlights and then add darker colors on top. It's a different way of approaching a subject, and certainly helped loosen my style.

Photo Reference: www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/hgt/redfox/jpg

Photo Reference: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/06/10/article-0-018CB2F800000578-471_468x319.jpg

An abstracted attempt at a rocky waterfall. The overall image is fairly pathetic, but I like the way the colors on the "rocks" work together.

An early attempt at a self portrait. It resembles me only in that it looks like a human female and has about the right coloring.

Fashion illustration. I love these types of shoes (peep toe pumps), so it only made sense to paint them. Also, I am terrible at recreating text, and didn't want to choose an image with branding. I may have some control over the medium, but not that much.

The assignment was to create a montage of three unrelated objects and use a scrubbing technique (layering color and scrubbing away the highlights).

This montage was half successful. The background and the strawberry need a lot more work. But the pinwheel and caterpillar worked out really well.

Another scrubbed montage. This one turned out really well except for the smoke, which is unidentifiable. I discovered that smoke is best rendered using additive techniques, not scrubbing.

A large piece (22" x 30") done for my boyfriend at the time. It was an illustrative rendition of a photo of us, and somehow, with the large canvas, my color vibrancy suffered and the image is rather washed out. Otherwise, I was really happy with how this turned out.