Thursday, September 15, 2011

Wading


watercolor
22 x 15

Today's offering is a watercolor. Watercolors can be tricky little things. To be really good you need to do a lot of them. That's pretty much true of everything. Can't be good without putting in the time to get there. It seems to be particularly true of watercolors though. There's so many little things you need to keep in mind. For certain effects the paper has to be at a certain degree of wetness. A little too wet it won't work, a little too dry it won't work, and the only way to know when it's at that correct point is experience. Unfortunately you have to keep at it or you lose a lot of what you've gained. Lots of little tricks too. Again though if you take some time away from the medium you forget the little tricks.

That being said, I need to do more watercolors or forget about it completely. Can't see me giving it up completely though. I like watercolor too much. I think I actually prefer it to oil.

4 comments:

d00mg1rl said...

I love using watercolours, though I don't use them enough. You should keep it up though, you make it look so effortless.

Dave B said...

I do? Thanks, but they're far from effortless. If I remember correctly that simple background is the third attempt. I just kept washing them out. Being dark the ghost image that was left didn't matter much. The last two watercolors went directly from the board to the trash. But there are more coming. I am stubborn or maybe just a glutton for punishment.

d00mg1rl said...

You'd have to be a glutton for punishment, knowing what watercolours are like, but be stubborn, it's worth it when you produce something like this.

Dave B said...

They can be fun and are a nice change from oils. They're easy to store and besides I've got the paint and paper. Gotta use it for something.