In the Mood for Watercolor Art

I had art lessons in high school. Fine arts was part of the curriculum for two years.  We were taught how to draw and paint.  We were exposed to different tools- charcoal pencil, oil pastels, watercolor, water-based paint. We did still life, landscape, portrait, cubism, abstract painting and murals.  In the  spirit of full disclosure, I am not a beginner.  However, it has been awhile since I last picked up a brush.

I have been reading  Alessa Lanot’s blog for some time now and I am amazed at her creativity. She somehow piqued my interest in watercolor whenever she posts her art.

I bought a watercolor set, brushes and thick paper last week and since May 1, I have been practicing watercolor art.  There are a lot of Youtube videos which show different watercolor techniques. I have been using them for practice. Hopefully, there will come a time that I will no longer have to refer to those videos and will find a technique I can call my own.

On May 1, I painted an apple.

IMG_0485

The next day, I did strawberry, raspberry, pepper and basil.
IMG_0500

The beauty of social media is that you can get instant feedback from friends. They seemed to like my work that I was motivated to do more. By Day 3, I was willing to try another technique, one has an impressionistic feel to it and the other one uses Chinese painting technique.
IMG_0507

Today is Day 4 of my watercolor practice and I think Youtube is running out of videos I can practice on.
IMG_0509

My friend suggested that I should open an Etsy shop and offer watercolor illustrations. Another friend suggested that I should create greeting cards for special occasions. Another one suggested that I should mount an exhibit and raise funds for our alumni homecoming. Haha!  I am thankful for supportive friends who think I have talent in this art form.

I think I still need to practice more. All I have done is copy what others have done. I hope I will be able to create original work someday. Right now, I am enjoying the process and I am running out of paper. I will have to buy another set tomorrow.

How about you?  What craft are you interested in?

36 Responses

Leave a Reply to How I Paint Watercolor Portraits Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *