Flowers

This is my first watercolor with normal watercolors rather than the watercolor pencils. I used acrylic for the center of the flowers and the white parts. I like how the main flowers came out, but I'm not sure if I just should have left out the out of focus flowers. I put them in because I thought I would be able to do more justice to their out of focus-ness, and because otherwise it left a lot of negative space that I didn't like. This is also the first painting I'm actually giving to someone. It's my mom's birthday on Friday, and since she used to do quite a bit of drawing and painting and she's the one who gave me the watercolors, I though this would be a great gift. She's my mother, so hopefully she'll be okay with the fact that it isn't a Matisse. I really hope she likes it; I thought it would be a lot better than just giving her a card (she lives in Arizona).

I loved painting this, I did lots of layers and ended up recruiting the paintbrushes I had originally bought (but never used) for acrylic over to watercolor. The photo doesn't quite show all the variation in the petals, but I don't have my USB cord for my camera and I didn't want to smoosh it on the scanner.

I've already observed that at least for my style right now, I definitely like the harder brushes rather than the softer ones, if that makes any sense. Ironically, the harder ones feel more fluid to me. I'm going to need to go brush shopping soon. I'll just add that to my ever expanding list.

I'd love a friendly critique, if anyone is willing to give one. I'm very, very new at this and would appreciate any advice on how to improve. (Other than practicing, which given how much fun I had doing this one, I don't think I'll have a problem with that)

Reeves watercolors (student grade)
Windsor and Newton Acrylic paints (yellow and white)
Arches 140# HP Br. White
6 hours (with dinner and other breaks included)

Parched - 1/18/08

My first watercolor since... I don't know, probably third grade. For Christmas I picked up some very cheap watercolor pencils by Staedler. When I say cheap, I mean cheap. I got 12 pencils for $3; these are definitely student quality, or a quality worse than student quality. Anyways, I bought these pencils simply because I had never heard of water color pencils and because I had started messing around with pen and ink and had seen the gorgeous pen and watercolor combos. This painting is horrible, one that I would be embarrassed to show anyone in person, but the internet lends me that lovely bit of anonymity. I'm proud to show off my horrible work, as long as I don't have to see people's reactions.

Doing this painting (is it a painting or is watercolor still referred to as a drawing? I'm going with painting, after all, I used a brush.) brought home to me that:
1) I don't like the pencils, but I really like the medium
2) I remember now why I never drew in pencil during high school

Frankly, my pencil drawing abilities are horrible. I like charcoal for it's smudginess, it's messiness, and above all, the ability to blend with my fingers. Colored pencils are so refined, so non-blendable with hands. Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for those who can draw well in pencil, probably because I can't at all. I ooh and ahh over the pretty drawings. With watercolor, I think I'm going to have to force myself to get over my aversion to pencils. I love seeing the crisp lines blur and transform into rivets of color.

To this end, yesterday I went to ArtMedia and purchased 8 of the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils. I've heard great things about these pencils on the EDM boards, so I thought I'd give them a try. I was thinking about buying the 12 pack, but I didn't want to spend $18 and bought separately they're nearly the exact same price as the kit. I did pick my 8 colors from those offered in the 12-pack, and the next 4 will be the colors offered there as well. I'll just add 2 - 6 pencils every time I get paid, which works out to once a month.

I do like how the sand dunes/hills in this drawing have a good color variation in them. The sky was good until it went to white rather than lighter blue. That's just a matter of putting more color in that area. The one thing I really don't like is how the tree turned out, or more specifically the tree's shadow I tried to do. It just made it look like the tree had black tree branch like smoke rising from it's topmost branches.

Materials
Canson Watercolor 140lb CP
Staedtler Watercolor pencils