Yes, Here's a number of tips for beginning painters. There's a bit of a learning curve with watercolors, but once you get the idea that they are transparent and you can't cover light over dark, it gets much easier. This is different from acrylics, guache (opaque watercolor), pastels, and oils.
Use 100% cotton paper. It's more expensive, but you can use smaller pads to save money. There's nothing wrong with small paintings for learning. Most of my paintings are on 9x12 pads, taped off to 8x10, so that they fit into pre-cut standard mats. I use green Frog Tape as it is relatively cheap.
Two or three brushes are enough: a sharp-pointed one, a flat, and a pointed mop. I have used nylon and fake squirrel hair, both work. Better quality paint is good but is not that important. You don't need a lot of colors, but you could start with a student-grade set of tubes or a palette.
If you get tubes, you'll want a bright yellow, a lemon yellow, a cool red, a hot red, a cool blue like ultramarine, and a warmer blue like thalo blue. I'd also get burnt umber (a dark brown) and yellow ochre, a useful, earthy dark yellow. Don't worry about whites or black. You should leave the paper unpainted for white, but if you need a small highlight, you can use a white gel pen.
I prefer to use Daniel Smith colors, which are very spendy, but they are highly pigmented and last a long time. Most any colors marked "academy" will be fine to learn with.
Don't be afraid to get your paper wet. Controlling where the water goes is a skill you learn with practice. You also learn to let a wash dry completely before trying to paint over it or next to it. Don't be afraid to use your paint. Making swatches with a gradient of pure paint to pure water will show you how to manage. It is a skill. Remember that you develop skill, just as you do with writing.
I hope that helps. Feel free to ask about anything else.
Start with a good drawing, whether you draw it, trace it, or get it from a coloring book. A bad drawing can't be fixed by skilled painting. Some videos on YouTube have both a reference photo and a downloadable sketch. If you want a good beginner course, Liron Yakonsky has one for $24. He has a lot of free short videos too.
Pay attention to shadows on your reference. Instead of using black, use a mix of the main color and the opposite color, like a bit of purple in yellow, green in red, orange in blue. A dark color can be mixed with red, blue and green.
Your beautiful butterflies are captivating.
Thank you
Gorgeous!
Thanks!
As I've said before, you are multi-talented :)
Thank you. Anything to avoid housework.
Have you got any tips for someone just starting out who'd like to be able to paint like you someday?
Yes, Here's a number of tips for beginning painters. There's a bit of a learning curve with watercolors, but once you get the idea that they are transparent and you can't cover light over dark, it gets much easier. This is different from acrylics, guache (opaque watercolor), pastels, and oils.
Use 100% cotton paper. It's more expensive, but you can use smaller pads to save money. There's nothing wrong with small paintings for learning. Most of my paintings are on 9x12 pads, taped off to 8x10, so that they fit into pre-cut standard mats. I use green Frog Tape as it is relatively cheap.
Two or three brushes are enough: a sharp-pointed one, a flat, and a pointed mop. I have used nylon and fake squirrel hair, both work. Better quality paint is good but is not that important. You don't need a lot of colors, but you could start with a student-grade set of tubes or a palette.
If you get tubes, you'll want a bright yellow, a lemon yellow, a cool red, a hot red, a cool blue like ultramarine, and a warmer blue like thalo blue. I'd also get burnt umber (a dark brown) and yellow ochre, a useful, earthy dark yellow. Don't worry about whites or black. You should leave the paper unpainted for white, but if you need a small highlight, you can use a white gel pen.
I prefer to use Daniel Smith colors, which are very spendy, but they are highly pigmented and last a long time. Most any colors marked "academy" will be fine to learn with.
Don't be afraid to get your paper wet. Controlling where the water goes is a skill you learn with practice. You also learn to let a wash dry completely before trying to paint over it or next to it. Don't be afraid to use your paint. Making swatches with a gradient of pure paint to pure water will show you how to manage. It is a skill. Remember that you develop skill, just as you do with writing.
I hope that helps. Feel free to ask about anything else.
Start with a good drawing, whether you draw it, trace it, or get it from a coloring book. A bad drawing can't be fixed by skilled painting. Some videos on YouTube have both a reference photo and a downloadable sketch. If you want a good beginner course, Liron Yakonsky has one for $24. He has a lot of free short videos too.
Pay attention to shadows on your reference. Instead of using black, use a mix of the main color and the opposite color, like a bit of purple in yellow, green in red, orange in blue. A dark color can be mixed with red, blue and green.
These are amazing! We took a class last summer, and have a long way to go. Yout technique is so clean!
Beautiful!
So beautiful! 🦋