Watercolor Step by Step My Way: Coconut Tree

a. First Step

(a) First Step: First Layer, the coconuts and the the lighter layer branch are yellow-washed no preliminary sketches, the brown trunk are laid with red-wash of light value, because I usually mix red, blue and yellow added the last to make a brown. I only paint light washes because I am going to mix darker mix next, the first light layers just to make sure I am not laying dark washes over spaces that supposed to be left in the light.

(b) Second Step: Ha ha I only dared to paint the coconut tree on the right hand top corner, because I always or never succeeding in painting the coconuts and always get blurred with other painting and never shaped really well because I try to paint wet-on-wet (because I find that painting this way always give me nice surprised in the end), but this time I use dry-on-dry (is it the correct term?) as the second layer. I put the yellow and ultramarine on separate well of my new ceramic palette (although it is actually a place kind of ceramic dish for chillies, but I thought it would be nice for my poster color paints, but then I use it here). I mix the yellow and the ultramarine (yellow added first dry on dry with watery mix of water and yellow), then added ultramarine then try to mix it on paper to form green to cover the coconuts one by one. and here is the result:

(b) Second Step

(c) Third Step: I added the other things that usually there on a coconut tree, for example the long blade leaf, the other coconuts, and added the second layer on some parts of the painting, for example the coconuts on the lower half of the painting (the two big coconuts).

After that because I was afraid I am going to paint over the long blade leaf and overrun the space for the leaf with other stuff so the leaf won't come through the painting, I use W&N Galeria
round brush no.6 (I try it the first time here, I thought I am going to use it for the poster paints because the coarser hair of the brush) but it turned out it works really well to paint the long blade leafs of coconut tree-with no pencil used beforehand. I use yellow ochre-a bit watery and added with a little yellow on it to paint the leafs, started with long strong until it meet the end point and then added the other to form the white space representing the veins you usually find in the middle of coconut leaf. after it was dried, I add a second layer on the green branch of the coconut tree, using yellow (watery) and added ultramarine (also watery) to make the branches (the one in green, that used to be the yellowish branch) more visible, I am not satisfied with the branch color yet, I thought I am going to add a darker wash of green (as usual mixed from yellow and ultramarine next), but I need to wait for it to dry, so I paint the second layer on the coconuts on the lower half of the painting, in here, rather than use the flat brush that worked out really well in painting the coconuts on the top right corner, I try using the round big brush no. 12 to add the second layer, mixing watery red and yellow on the lower half of the coconut, because they looks orangish on the coconut tree, then added mixing of yellow and ultramarine (still watery) on the top half of the coconut, but because it was so watery I did not got the definite coconut-look like the one in the top right corner (the one I used with flat brush), I don't know maybe because it was best to paint the coconuts with flat brush instead? but I opted to use the round brush in the spirit of washes...whatever that means. OK, I lost track again here. Anyway because I am afraid to paint over the spot for the coconut leafs, so I started to paint the coconut leafs with yellow ochre, like the one I describe before, Actually I did this first before I lay the second wash on the coconuts, by laying over the dried yellow ochre leafs with yellow and Ultramarine - because I am not afraid, and because I am going to paint darker wash-a much darker wash to paint the leafs, and yes so I used Prussian blue over the dried yellow Ochre, and what I got, it was beautiful...Me thinks...

(c) Third Steps

I added a second layer of yellow, red and blue (very watery because I run out of yellow paints) to form the coconut tree trunk, it supposed to look brown, but because of my incompetency in mixing a balanced diet of yellow-red-and-blue (to form brown) I only managed it to look a little reddish-purple (because if I use a non watery mix, somehow I make the mix into blackish brown that looks so depressing, that's why I add a lot of water on each paint when I mix them on the paper to form brown, but yet always fail to make the right balance of yellow, red and blue). Anyway, since the green on the green branch were so transparent (because just like any other new beginner in watercolor, I tend to use a little paint on the painting), so I added the third layer of darker green mixed from Prussian blue and yellow ochre-and wow I love the result, although I am not tidy enough in painting it over because I've just wake up and my brain still in a puddle). So here is the painting result:

(d) Fourth Step

The finished product...

(e) Fifth Step

Can't take it anymore so I just finished it...The problem is...too much yellow showed on the green, no wonder I run out of yellow paints! Wish I could show all of the painting, since it's in A3 paper, while I only have A4 size paper

Use a Model or Not to Use a Model: Watercolor

My mother like the one in above better because it was more realistic I guess, and the one below looks like a ghost, I think that so too, I think it was because the first one I looked at the model all the time when I paint this, and the other one, the one that looked like a ghost (the one below) were drawn by using imagination (at least half of it) because my model run out on me to go swimming (well she was only 5 years old), so I guess the conclusion is when you paint someone without using the real model and instead just rely on your imagination, your result might be just like any other imaginary faced (that looks like more like a cartoon) then a realistic one.

The first picture and the picture below it I use first layer of orange wash at first, just like a doodle without so much shaping, just general wash, even the form of the face are not defined yet, and then I add the hair, on the first picture I add Prussian blue on the mix to make the hair, and on the second picture just pure orange wash, and then I add the details like eyes (try to shape an eye) using the same orange but with darker tone to define the eyes, then tried to shape the nose (but always fail) by adding two twin dark holes then try painstakingly but yet always fail to make the mouth, but I know how now, just paint a straight line (the middle line that divide the lips) and then add the shadow under the lips to define the lips, try not to paint the lips because it would looked garish and so out of place if you define the lips too much (this is working on the second picture, the 2nd try on painting people), but I guess I need a lot of work to do since none of the pictures above looked any human to me.

Anyhow, I think I like the first picture (the 1st try) better then the second one, because it looks more realistic, and I guess it's because I paid attention to details at the first picture, while on the second picture I just imagine it and paint or draw something that not there. So I guess (maybe as a beginner) a model for painting is a must, at least until you are experienced enough to paint realistically without model.

Coconut Tree: Watercolor

Having just got back home from where I work (well I gotta have a job as an inspiring artist right? Well, I can't hardly sell my paintings, the one titled the study of hand and foot, please...even my little nephwew can discern what is my foot is when I asked her whether my painting "pretty" or not, she just said : what is that, auntie? Is it an elephant? Wew, while I was so proud with my foot painting ha ha), anyway, since I can't hardly only paint my hand and foot while I only have two hands and two feet that of course identical (I hope they do identical, well maybe not the creases), so I have to find another object to paint. So I gather up my painting equipment and headed to the garden (well not really a garden more like inhabited plow of lands where everything grows and where neighboring chickens or my chicken neighbors or whatever eat). I always wanted to paint a coconut tree, so no matter how scary the weather is (the wind howling, the sky looked scary with gray fat clouds and thunder, until I have to send my two little nephews whose I took to accompany to paint inside), and how the drizzle makes my watercolor pad wet, I sit on that concrete at the side of my house and paint.

Wew, painting something outside (that you imagine would be beautiful) is not easy. I was using layer by layer technique (a layer of wash on another layer of wash), but still something missing. I was using wet on wet (I spray the paper first) but it only make the paints gone awry everywhere. In the end I was so frustrated I want to give up, until I realized I was not paying attention enough when I was painting, I guess like drawing, you have to pay attention to detail and started to paint while you are doing it so you can shape the paint like you want it to be.

Well, I know the painting I did is not the best of coconut tree painting, at least I enjoyed it so much I am going to do the same again tomorrow, well not tomorrow because I gotta do some my work first to keep the kitchen running so they say, or just to find extra money to buy some watercolor paper and stuff. Oh, anyway I am not using any pencil. Cause they say, it's better not to use pencil before you paint, do not know why maybe just to practice your hand with the painting flow or something?

Study of My Hand: Watercolor with no Preliminary Sketch

Still confuse what to paint so rather than thinking too much and then get more far away from my goal, that is to paint and practice as much as I can, I decided to paint my hand.

The same ways I use in painting my foot, the different is just that I did not sketch it using pencil, I just use my brush to form the swept of the hand and then form the hand using a light was of red, then add ultramarine blue on the darkest place on my skin and on the creases and wrinkles and then add red and yellow to form brown, the color of my skin.

I had problem when I am trying to make it more visible like a hand, and how to paint the nail realistic, in the end I just try to form the hand with adding Prussian blue (the dark blue). Then I just wash a very light red on the nail, while not painting at the little white you usually found on your finger located at the base of the nail.

The problem is, it does not look like a hand to me, rather it look like a misplaced alien hand on my bed.

Watercolor's Satisfying gives

Study of my foot (Wet-in-wet).

I was reading Understanding Comics from Scott McCloud (I am also an inspiring comic artist, ha ha but never have a comic made yet) when I see one of the comic panels in his book that said that as a painter or artist who want to succeed everyone have to work really hard, as hard as any writer who want to publish a good book, as the same as a comic artist you have to work really hard, only focus on your work, practice, practice and practice, that's why then I tried to to treat my watercolor journey the same, practice practice and practice, and because I already experience the harsh condition when drawing and painting outside, and rather than delay it any longer I choose my foot as the object of my painting, so here it is. At first I was so dissappointed, well because it does not look like a foot and it looks flat, so then rather than swallowed up in my disappointment, I laid it down on my carpet and let it dry, expecting it to be really bad, and what a surprise, when it all dried up and the paints merge up with one another, wow, at least it looks finally like a foot to me, he he...I was so excited, that's true what expert say, watercolor give you such a satisfying and exhilarating feeling when you never gave up!

Anyway, first I sketch my foot lying prone on my single bed at night before I went to sleep, and because sketching and drawing with the right or accurate proportion always elude me, before I tear the watercolor pad, I put my finished foot sketch and went to sleep. The next day, I grab an eraser and tried to loose the lines that help me to sketch and after I am quite satisfied (I am not satisfied at all as usual, but because the point now is to paint and not to draw) I then take my watercolor pad to paint in my own bedroom-turn-studio to paint, I put the palette on my bed after spraying on with the spraying bottle at the left-off paints (I put half from the tube straight at my palette so I won't have to squeeze paint now and then) to water it down, and then I started to put the first light wash of red (very light) to indicate the sole of my foot, and then because it looks weird so I wash all the foot with light wash of red, because I would put a darker wash anyway. Oh I spray on the watercolor pad, so I was working wet-in-wet, wow I do sound like a watercolor artist now ha ha, anyway after the light wash of red still wet, I dab the usual ultramarine on the shadow (the tip of my foot and the how do we say the part of foot visible from an open shoes when you walk? instep?) and then because I have a dark skin just like any Asian who live in the line of the tropic, I add a wash with more red paint on my round brush and then dab it with yellow (a lot of yellow on the brush), so I could achieve the brown looking mix I am suppose to have when I mix red, blue and yellow, but as usual, because watercolor so unpredictable, I only got dark green to grayish green that not a natural color of a foot, so I add more blue and red. In the end, still not satisfied I try to fix it, add yellow here, add Prussian blue on the shadows, try to make wrinkles with a rigger brush, but does not work so I dab it and with a damp brush loaded with water to merge the so garish line from the rigger from the wrinkles, and then I add a yellow wash on the bed my foot lying upon, and then put a very light wash of ultramarine blue or was it darker blue I was never sure to make the spread green, but because I was not brave enough afraid that I would not be able to distinguish the spread and my foot (because I was using practically the same color, yellow, ultramarine and red on the spread and on the foot) I only add a very light wash of blue and in the end because the yellow are already dried, the spread still looked yellow instead of green when I added the ultramarine wash.

And then I worked on the fingers, I use load of ultramarine blue on my brush (again I am using no. 10 Lyra synthetic brush) to define the toes, and then I use Prussian blue (the darkest blue for you) to paint the nails, because same on me my foot's not very pretty and the nails broken and looks black, so I use the darkest blue for it. And thank god, the dark blues I use on the toes finally define my toes finger...

TO Sketch or not to Sketch: Painting in Watercolor without adding sketching first and My first try using Watercolor to paint my Self Portrait

Watercolor is hard...and every time I try it, well when I follow the rules instead of my guts and instinct, they look so bad it hurt! anyway, then I decided to just use the painting without using any pencil or pen to help me define the outside of the object and then paint it, kind of doodling, and although the result are not definable whatever that means, at least I tried it, it's just too bad I am using ordinary paper and Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolor series in tube, using oh what the name on the tube? OK I just know blue and then I add a little yellow ochre (it's really hard for me to remember the odd names, since we only know yellow, so whatever ochre means I guess it means it's darker than yellow (and have you ever heard of lemon yellow? wow the names of the paints boggle me!) I guess because I never live in US or anywhere in the world beside my small town or at least my undeveloped-yet-in-the-art country, so the name of paints are just sooo not-familiar. Anyway, here is the painting

Yeah, it's not really good, I paint it in a splash of inspiration when I want to go to bed and I suddenly have this inspiration to hone my skill in watercolor and just grabbed my pallete and and my drawing book (my drawing book not my watercolor pad) and then just jab at those left of paints on the well and dab and dab on the paper, to create leaves, and I left it off to dry and I just close my blanket over my sleeping bod and sleep, without looking at the result (my bedroom dark as a cavern). The next morning I was surprised! (well watercolor always surprise you, one of the book in Watercolor Tips and Tricks by David Norman once said what's so rewarding about pursuing watercolor painting and never give up even how hard it is at first, is because watercolor painting are so unpredictable, means what you see before the paints dry and what you got when the paint completely dry or on the next day is completely different one another sometimes it surprise you so much, while painting in oil color, what you see is what you got, no matter after a week I guess nothing change much, means oil painting is predictable, I guess, sorry because I am not a real expert here, I am just beginning to paint, anyway, the same thing happen to my doodling here, and I am just surprised the result is quite good the next morning, well until my Lil' Aisha who just found out the use of a marker and mark my leaves painting green!

Anyway don't stop trying, (to myself too) and just experimenting, well I am not experimenting much at the moment, hey wait! I remember, I am just experimenting, see it here in my self portrait using the same watercolor from W&N Cotman series, Lyra No.10 Round brush and 200 gsm watercolor pad.

I am using 2B Rotring pencil to sketch my self by looking at the mirror and then after I am satisfied with the sketching (or at least I forced my self to be satisfied with it because it does not look like me on the overall), I grabbed the pallete and the the round brush and started to put yellow wash on the highlight of my face, I am working wet-on-dry anyway because I hate primping my paper, and then I started to add a darker wash of red (not really dark, I dillute the paint with water and tested it on the clean surface of pallete before I put it on my face or the paper on the shadow and the darker part of my face like in the crest of my cheek the one that show off my face plumpiness, and then under the nose, the forehead and on the shadow under the neck. Next, while everything still wet and the yellow wash swallowed up by the darker red wash, I started to use blue (Winsor ultramarine I think) to add dots (not a wash) on the red because my face look bloodied and the red run amok on the paper surface to balance it, and then because it make my face look weird with the dark ultramarine patches, I try to fix it by adding the heavy mix of red and blue (to make a purple) and dab it on the face again, next I also add the yellow ochre on the ultramarine and alizarin crimsone (the red I use in here) to make a the brown skin of my face, I fail though because it just look like the paint I mix is more suitable for a leaf then on my face, so I stopped using the mix when I try it a little on my face, nex and the last I use the orange (I'll look at the tube later to see what's the official name, because all I know it's orange because I put it side by side with the red) and dab it right under the bottom lips, but what a disaster, because the orange so bright it hurt, I try to correct it using red, then I use prussian blue (the darkest blue I have) to paint on the eyes, the hair, the eyebrow and to distinguish my face and the neck, and then I just dab there right there and there to correct mistakes (although completely fail) and then because I left out the lips the last to paint, I try to paint it with very light red wash, but it looks not right because I have a dark lips almost darker than my skin, so I add a little purple, but still light wash, because I don't want my lips look to pronounce, but still fail, because I have to dab the paint and absorb it with tissue and in the end I just give up and let the lips be (as you can see on my painting). I put it on my facebook to share it with my family and a few friend I have and all of them Laughed Out Loud! LOL.

Winsor and Newton Rocks!

I was a newbie in a watercolor, because of that I googled everything on watercolor and one of the advices I remember so well, that I have to buy the goods the best I can afford (in my mind, means no matter how expensive the best available, I have to have it!) so then the journey of surfing through local internet art store begins...What a headache, since I live in a developing countries when expensive hobby pursuit is not normal, hence an online store provide the best in watercolors (papers, paints etc etc) is a rarity indeed in here, considering I still live in a town where forest still live between the row of inhabited houses, I have to depend solely on it, and it took me almost a week of sleeping well late after midnight and hanging on internet cafe for hours and have to be threatened to go back home immediately or locked away outside (since at 11.30 pm I am still sitting on a smokefilled, small chamber in internet bad-designed cafe rooms), until I've a site that offered "professional" art tools, and since the store still using html old code, since I cant order directly through the homepage, but I have to go through hassle and bustle of copying email address, composing new messages of the chance that the might delivered some goods to my still-sleep small city, waiting two days so they send me a brochure of brushes and papers and la la in a Microsoft excel no less, and have to wait a week to complete the order. So After I send the money and they send me the goods, a Maimeri professional watercolors, I was so thrilled and agast at how expensive it was, I cant even dare to open the tube and put some paint on the pallete, let alone use once-in-a-a-lifetime first try on real watercolor paper, I have to wait two days and so many "help!!!" asking for advice on my yahoo group untill I decided I have to try the expensives I bought or I would never use them forever. And I love it, at that moment I believe Maimeri was a God sent, to give me signal that I do meant to be a watercolor artist and I am going to exclusively use Maimeri Professional Artist watercolor and no others, until I met...Winsor and Newton "cheap" watercolor grade...


Gosh! They are beautiful! The vibrant colors, the easy flow of painting on the paper, the finished painting after it dried, ...it make my barney-and-friends painting seemed like a (what do you call a painting that looked like it painted by a true artist?) well...look watercolor professional, like I saw on watercolor-illustrated children books, I even astonished my self with the result, and I do recall again, its true, that you have to buy the best you can afford, because the result and the reward are just...awesome...too bad I can't upload it here since I do the painting well after midnight through 2 o'clock in the morning my sister would go away to her home bringing my Barney-and-friends painting I made for her baby can't have the time to be uploaded so you can see how well is the Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolour series are...

but you can see my Maimeri. here. because the picture above is my first watercolor painting using a professional Artist watercolor grade (using My Maimeri).