[Painting] Totoro in Watercolor

2nd in the series. Probably my favorite among the rest.

Once again, I been challenging myself to one watercolor a day. I am amazed at the results after getting new brushes and cheap 140 lb paper. I am starting to understand which brushes I use more often and what techniques I can use. I realized some techniques will not work with the size of paper/brush I use. There is a ton of trial and error.

Instead of doing landscapes, I wanted to paint something with a character. Totoro seemed easy enough so I decided to try it. Plus I watched the movie again while doing this.

[Painting] New Watercolors, New Paintings

I decided to buy a block style watercolor set since many tutorials are shown using a few colors and mixing them for the desired effect. The set I brought was the Sakura Koi 24 Watercolor travel size set. The set was a good value and I wanted something portable in case I wanted to paint landscapes when I hiked.

I like this set better than my watercolor pencils set. I am able to mix colors much more easily and achieve different effects. Though I just recently learned, I could have taken a wet brush to the watercolor pencil and used it that way. Well, I thought the color would have dissolved faster but I was wrong. I also learned my Sakura Micron pens are waterproof and I could use them with watercolors.

Now I am wondering what else there is....

On to the paintings below:

[Painting] A Watercolor a day

This week I challenged myself to learn how to use watercolor. About a year ago, I brought a watercolor pencil set and barely used it. It felt almost too precious to use but I finally broke through to use it without remorse (almost).

I been trying to inspire myself to use them over the past year. I really wanted to paint images in beautiful colors but I lack self confidence. I always feel that I can't do it but I want to break through that barrier. Hopefully, one day I can paint sites and landscapes. For now, I will have to learn through tutorials and images online.

Waterlily

 July 20, 2015 - Start
Watercolor waterlily tutorial I found on youtube. I could not make it as expansive as the tutorial showed since I was trying to save paper by cutting a 9" x 12" paper into 1/4. Watercolor paper is expensive after all. This 90 lb paper also curled so I would probably get thicker watercolor paper next time.

I can't say I am too proud of this work but it was a start. Using watercolor pencils was difficult when trying to imitate the techniques.

Learned: Can't mix the color I want as easily with watercolor pencils. Also less is more.