Three Years of Blogging

I am really happy to announce that I have completed three years of art blogging. I have learned a lot through trials and errors and tried my hand in pastel, watercolor,graphite,acrylics and most recently in colored pencils. So far, my favorite mediums continue to be in graphite and watercolor. I have a feeling that colored pencils have started to grow on me. I doubt it if I will try my hand in oil. I still feel that I am yet to master in watercolor. It has been a learning experience and it will continue to be so for years to come.

I am taking a brief break from painting this summer. So I will resume blogging in late summer. See you then!

Spring Has Arrived Ver. 2

What a learning experience it was when I finished this painting! I shall share with you how you can successfully paint on a surface primed with watercolor primer. Atleast for this particular watercolor primer of Schminke with fine texture. I used a regular paintbrush to prime the gessoed surface so the finished surface has ridges that you usually get when using a flat paintbrush. If you do not like the said texture, you can use a sponge brush instead.

I took a small break after doing the background of this piece. The unfamiliarity of the new surface kinda overwhelmed me. I decided to  reduce the amount of water in the watercolor wash. The consistency should be that of heavy cream, not the whipped one but the liquid one. I tried using dry brush technique for the second and third layer to control the value of the color. The subsequent layer was added when the previous layer was bone-dry. Softening a hard edge with clean water was sometimes kind of hit and miss. Since my hand was touching the background while painting the main subject, the background color started lifting from repeated contact.  I decided to spray on a layer of fixative. Accidently, I sprayed on the areas that were not painted too. While painting these areas, I found that I had to scrub in the paint on areas sprayed with fixative. I didn’t have to paint on with light  pressure anymore! So much for happy accidents!