Rainy Day

5"x 7" watercolor on aquaboard

This year I want to practice watercolor. I've done several in the past but have certainly never mastered it.

The look of watercolor as it flows over the paper and does its own thing, all the effects that can be achieved, the energy of it. Yeah. I want to do that!

I've never quite gotten there, but that's what practice is about. One thing that is so so important is the surface you're working on. To do watercolors, surface is everything. This little painting is on aquaboard and it certainly has its benefits. It is very forgiving. The paint will lift off the surface (for the most part) with a wet brush. You can even scratch at it with an exacto knife. That's great. But what I wasn't able to achieve is that beautiful watercolor flow. Of course that could be me and my own inexperience. But I'll try the next watercolor on a different paper. 

Here are my steps:

With this bottom one, I realized I didn't like the eyes. That one on the left is just a bit too far away and higher that the other one. What now? Again, the aquaboard is forgiving, so I did manage to fix it a bit.

the final (at the top of page) is not perfect, but I was content with it.

This one below, I did several months ago in a watercolor sketchbook. The portrait itself isn't great, and his hand is unnaturally huge, but see how the paint does its thing, especially down in his sweatshirt? I like that. That's what I'm trying to do, that I couldn't seem to do on the aquaboard.

Thanks for stopping by!