Watercolour Wednesday; a review

When I started Alisa Burke's Watercolor Bliss course, I felt I needed some new paints. I am very much part of the 'these supplies are too good to be used on nothing important'-club, which I know I shouldn't be, but hey, it's an excuse to buy some goodies, right?

After some searching, I found the Koh-i-Noor 24 pan stacking set.


The set is tiny, fits in my hand, but the colours are amazingly vibrant. I tested them by using the colours straight from the pan, and then adding more and more water as I went along. I really liked the results:


Then I tried them out even more, pairing colours together, seeing how they looked.







For what are considered a school supply, I am happily suprised by these paints. The colours are vibrant, they mix really well. The set is small enough to throw in your bag for on the go arting, and does not take up a lot of space on your desk (space is a huge issue for me at the moment!), and they don't cost the earth.

This Koh-i-noor 24 pan stackable set gets a thumbs up from me!

Water colour Wednesday (9)

Today, I played with masking fluid.I got it for my birthday, but had not really had a chance to use it yet.


So I started off with making a few shapes on the paper:


Then I let it dry completely (long live the fan) before adding the first colour:


Then I made some shapes within the rectangle and the squares.



I let it dry completely again before adding a second colour and then some more doodles in masking fluid:


After letting that all dry again, I painted all the shapes black:


Then I let it dry for one last time before pulling off all the masking fluid:


So there you have it, three layers of paint and three lots of masking fluid:


It was a lot of fun and I like the results. The only thing I had not thought of was how long it would take for the masking fluid to actually dry. It does take quite a bit of time, depending on how thick you put it on. The thicker the layer of fluid the easier it is to peel it off, though.

One thing before you try this: do not use your best brushes. The masking fluid when dry does really mess up your brush. Or you could wash them out immediately afterwards, of course... but, yeah... umm... nevermind..

Water colour Wednesday, a day late

Yes I know, Watercolour Wednesday is a day late. I have been using my water colours a lot lately, but more as a colouring in kind of thing than to use it in actual water colouring. That may sound confusing, but water colour as a medium is different than using it as a way to just add some colour to a page.

And I have to be honest, I was running out of ideas of what to try.
So last night, I was having a look around on Youtube to see if I could find some easy techniques to try.

I found this video:

and decided try it, using the colours suggested in the video.



It's so fun seeing the colours mixing right there on the page!



then I tried out this one:

but I used cadmium yellow instead of cadmium orange. (I messed up, alright?)





Tye, being the ever loving and supportive sweetheart that he is, said he was suddenly craving broccoli and cheese for dinner tonight.......

Water colour Wednesday (7)

It's Watercolour Wednesday again!

As I'm in Teddy mode, let's see if I can do one starting off without any outlining.




an cotton bud to soak up some of the water and pigment:


Letting it all dry:


And then adding some coloured pencil details:


I liked the effect and I carried on going, now with water coloured pencil.


Did I take it too far? Yeah, maybe. The purple did not come out as nice as I thougth it would.. but hey, if you don't do, you'll never learn, right? I guess I need to figure out when to stop...



(And also... how come my teddy is now a doggy? You'd almost think I've got puppies on the brain! *LOL*)

Water colour Wednesday (6)

Today's Watercolour Wednesday started out being about layers.



But then it became about mixing colours. The different blues and greens make even more beautiful turquoises.


Tye asked why I was painting wallpaper....



Filling in the page with paint in all the shades I could come up with..



The more I learn about how to mix these paints the more I'm enjoying them. Even though I know I'm not the first person to mix sap green and cobalt blue, it feels like I'm inventing something completely new, making these paints my own.

Water colour Wednesday (5)

Once you start working in a new medium, you suddenly see it everywhere. People using it in ways you never even thought of.
See, when you think of water colours you think of landscapes and flowers and traditional things like that, but then I stumbled across this blogpost by Gentian and completely fell in love with her style.

I am far from the world's best in drawing faces, but if you never do you'll never learn, so...

I sprayed the page a little:


I started painting by mixing sap green and Payne's gray:


and then Hooker's Green light and Payene's Gray and using some of the grey on its own:



Of course my result is nowhere near Gentian's work, but I quite like it...