Behold, I stand at the door and knock,
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come into him and dine with him,
And him with me.
Revelations 3:20 (NIV)
Watercolour Training Exercises
Introduction
To improve my watercolour painting I have found it best to do watercolour exercises or anything that will help improve them. I am self taught and I have chosen YouTube artists videos to help. The beauty of the internet is that artist all over the world can reach you with their videos. In many cases it costs nothing to learn from them.
I was careful in my selection, choosing what I believe would be the most helpful artists, I chose them by the quality of their work and how well they could explain themselves.
The plan that I have created is a two week plan which I aim to complete over a two week period, spending at least 1 hour on each topic. The techniques are repetitive and comparative, showing small improvements at a time.
One reason for putting them on my website is so that I can access them anywhere in the world and practice them.
Calligraphy Exercise
Calligraphy
I use a short video from the internet to practice gothic writing. I love the artist style. Though there is no explanation, it is easy to follow. I also created a chart so that I can find the letters in the video. I also purchased a pen set from Amazon. I find it such a beautiful experience practicing Gothic or Old English writing. In watercolour painting, quite often, less is more, and with a few simple strokes beautiful letters are created.
Video to practice from
Images of the pen set that I use. Purchased on Amazon
Location times on video in minutes and seconds
Some examples
Portraits and people Exercise
Portraits and people
Here I have used three YouTube videos to assist me. Two for converting the portrait to greyscale and one for simplifying the features
First attempt but wasn't happy with the chin.
Greyscale with Stan Miller
Simplifying the portrait into greyscale is a good exercise for me. I am drawing with the brush and learning about values on the face. A great exercise. Some examples are given.
First attempt at this and struggled to control the value
An interesting way to paint black skin
An undercoat of purple is used so that when the complementary colour is used the skin tone is correct. I have been practicing the undercoat, trying to get the values correct. I am also drawing with the brush so no pencil sketch is required. I have given some examples.
Scotties face sketching with four lines
With watercolour less is more and here is a very good example of it. I was surprised by how four lines can create a face.
Line and Wash Exercise
Line and Wash
To understand the principles of line and wash I used two videos by Marc Kompaneyets. He uses examples from the old masters and explains clearly how to create the illusion of 3 dimensions using line and wash techniques. I made notes and applied his technique in my line and wash paintings.
For reference and tree exercises I used the Colin Tree Guide
In this videos Marc show how to draw trees in pen and ink.
In this video Marc show how to draw trees in pen and ink, with ink wash or watercolour.
Urban Sketching Exercises
Two styles of Urban sketching
There are two styles or urban sketching that I am trying to learn from. One is that of Ian Fennerly who uses a pen and wash techniques and the other it that of the 'House Sketcher' who uses pen and marker pens. You can see examples of these on my Urban Sketching and Urban Buildings page.
Negative Painting Exercise
Negative Painting
There are several areas of negative painting I would like to master. The brain is not wired to see negative shapes so I have to train it. One exercise I do is to paint the negative shapes in a stencil. I purchased a set off Amazon. No pen or pencil is used so I had to 'draw with the brush'. I used black watercolour paint which is good for this exercise. Watercolour artist rarely used black paint in there paintings but it is very useful here. I have scanned the stencils so anyone can give it a try. I have also shown some of my efforts here.
Stencils to negative paint from
Negative painting examples
Where to start was a challenge. The size of the brush affected to final size outcome. The bigger the brush the bigger the final painting. Average time taken was 1 hour, some shorter some longer. An A5 watercolour pad was used. No marker pen or pencil was used.
Five Value System
The Five Value System
I practise this exercise every two weeks. It helps me when I plan my watercolour painting. I tend to use three values in my painting but it is good to know all five. The video below demonstrates this system well.