Happy Easter! I’ve saved up my efforts for this occasion as I felt it apt to mirror this colorful event. Here I present to you my brand new color diary which I have been working on since Spring break.
It was about time that I seriously taught myself how to paint with watercolors and I started off my education with learning the different combinations I could get with the color sets I own. Here I’ve listen down the default colors from my Windsor and Newton Sketcher’s Box and did color swatches with them. As you can see my painting application feels a bit shoddy. But discovering the new colors makes me very happy indeed.
I also attempted to mix my Windsor and Newton set with my Prang paints. You’d be surprised with the consistency that you could get when mixing brands.
Still not used to it, but this was an attempt on doing a wet on dry technique. Not so happy with my values but the colors are starting to shape up into my preferred aesthetic.
A roundup of my materials: Prang Oval Pan Watercolor Set, Windsor and Newton Pocket Plus Traveller set, Pink Pentel watercolor tube gifted to me by Sandra Dans, metallic mixing plate, and cheap chinese calligraphy brush for rendering.
Hello! Stumbled upon your blog and I just want to tell you how much I love it! :) You’ve inspired me to make color swatches of my own too, and to mix brands, thanks for the tip! :) I recently bought this inexpensive watercolor set from National Cubao because the colors appeared neon but to my delight, they become pastely on paper. Would you have any tips on making color swatches? I want to learn more about watercolor :) Thanks in advance!
I’m so happy that you like it! Actually a friend gave me a neon pink tube and I’ve experimented with it and came up with a lot of luscious skin tones. I’ve found that neon cake paints do come out paler on paper but I’ve wondered how it would look like if I used less water and more pigment… hmm
As for making color swatches, I highly recommend using a colored pencil (I use a .7 pilot mechanical pencil with blue lead) for drawing the squares so your swatches don’t come out muddy. A grid ruler is also great so it’s easy to measure around :D Best of luck for your swatches! I would love to see them when you finish.
Thanks for the tip! :) I’m planning on doing some tomorrow. I’ve recently been fascinated with the metallic variant of Prang. I’ve used it in some painting attempts here: http://aphazia.livejournal.com/tag/artsyfartsy
Have you tried metallic watercolors? What do you think of it? There’s a less expensive brand called Joy from Office Warehouse that I also love, it comes in more colors too. :)
Oh my! That skirt is looking fine :D That’s an interesting effect.
I haven’t been touching metallic paints since I’ve bought this cheap cake set that came in a blue case. I disliked how muddy it was and didn’t think about it much after a couple tries. But this was over a year ago. I’ll try to pick them up when I return to the Philippines. I’m glad to hear that your experiences with them seem successful. Now I’m interested!
Hi! Your comment made me so giddy, thank you so much :) Oops–I think that might be the paintset that I got haha :) I hope your experience with it in the future is better. I use it for making watercolor stickers using blank sticker dots, so maybe it works in a different type of paper? For the ballerina one and the sitting girl though, I used Prang metallic :)
Hope you’re having a lovely day!