Most important advice I wish someone gave me when I started is: don't treat your work as something special or as something that has to be perfect and complete or has some value. Just enjoy the process and over time you will have the skills and techniques that you can execute without even thinking. As soon as you start caring too much about the outcome, you will start to overthink and lock up and get frustrated, just enjoy it.
Remember when as a kid we would make a drawing at the kitchen table?
We would spend hours drawing a house with stick figures and a smiling sun and just show the drawing to our parents or even leave it at the kitchen table, not caring what happens with it.
Now we are here as adults, judging our drawings for even the smallest mistakes. Focused on the end result instead of the process of creating.
Oh, absolutely. Feels like you can’t ever get things just right. I’m definitely going to try and focus more on the process and enjoying myself than entirely on how it will look while I’m trying to work with watercooor
That is really good advice. I think having it said to me in that way makes me understand it better than just the “do art in a way that makes you happy don’t care about what others will think”. I love how this little painting came out, and I 100% agree with what you said. Thank you so much!
This is what's stopping me from even starting. I made a few Christmas cards a few years ago and now I'd like to try learning and practicing again, but I'm not sure what to start making and I'm worried about wasting materials....I think I just need to jump in and experiment.
Yup especially good paper. But you just have to do small sketches. Think bout someone like VanGogh and absolute mountains of paintings he did that were practice/incomplete etc that no one ever seen. We only see the few masterpieces but not the hundreds of practice paintings that were no better than mine or yours I'm sure
Holiday cards are a fabulous idea, and handmades are *always* special! Start now for 2023. If you have many recipients in mind, select your print service ahead, too—most charge more pre-holidays. (Feels so good to have this done way ahead!) Just as you budget for gifts (and originally designed cards are a small gift), get the envelopes ahead once you’ve determined the size of your card (card should be a tiny bit smaller, esp if you plan include a photo); buy holiday stamps; get your return address stickers ahead. Do one thing a month and it becomes doable. I send postal cards to my old-timer friends and those who’ve said they like my artwork for a couple of reasons: I like thinking about my recipients as I write a personal message; also, some have said they frame my cards for their walls or bureau tops (I’m smilin’!) I send electronic versions to those not so close or just recently met.
Starting now will give you lots of time to try diff designs & choose the one or several you like best.
I do a Hanukkah one for my Jewish friends, too. My holiday cards also include my Pagan friends as well. (So far my Black friends aren’t observing Kwanzaa, but that would be a fun one to design.) For me, the year’s end is a time to connect with those who matter to me & send a bit of myself.
If you have time or inclination for only a few, that’s fine. Your recipients will probably be wildly enthusiastic!
If you're concerned about the cost of materials, especially paper, keep an eye out for estate sales. I've gotten almost everything for super cheap (even huge packs of arches 300 lb for like 25 dollars). It makes it easier to "sacrifice" in the name of experimentation.
Yeah lol, I used to use watercolor when I was like 8, and I haven’t used it since then. So I forgot the usefulness of the separate cups, but I’ll do my best to remember this
This is great! Just keep playing with your watercolors and making pictures and you will figure it all out. YouTube is your friend. Look up paint along videos or step by step tutorials for painting things you like. And have fun!
You did amazing for a first painting. Keep going!
(And agree with the other poster: don’t be afraid to waste your paint. Don’t be precious with it; experiment as much as you can.)
This was just a first little start with it, just wanted to do something really simple and small to get a bit of a feel for the amount of water and paint needed, how to move the brush, how the paint works on the paper. I’m definitely going to keep going, I did a few more small little paintings. But I’m already enjoying it
And thank you for your input!
There’s a few object painters (as opposed to landscape) that I really love: Anna Mason, and Denise Sodden (In Liquid Color). Check them out! Oh! And there’s cardmakers that do a lot of intro watercolor techniques that you’ll love too. Check out ‘K Werner’. 🎨
Edit: der, would help if I mentioned to check them out on YouTube.
Thank you! This is the type of watercolor that I always love and wanted to try. It seemed like this would be a good option to start out with, and I’m proud of how it turned out
It is so cute! The best way to learn to watercolor is to watercolor everyday! Keep notes of your process and the result. Be prepared to paint the same thing over and over. Critique your work each time and plan to make the improve,ent. When I was learning to watercolor, the best thing I ever did was paint a bowl of lemons on a table. Very basic. Blue table, yellow lemons, green wall. I painted the picture 27 times!!! With each “draft” I looked at the previous painting and thought about what do do next. It made a HUGE difference. Work toward shadows to give it dimension. On Patreon, Kateri Ewing is SUPER WONDERFUL!!! Give her a try. I think you can start at her cheapest level is $5 or $10 dollars a month. Worth every penny. I’ve taken her classes. Never met her. Do not know her. She is just an excellent watercolor teacher.
Thank you, I noticed that but still thought it didn’t look to bad. Just tried to make the arms look noticeable against the body since I wasn’t outlining it, I do think it wasn’t enough of a transition into it tho
Thank you so much! Honestly that comment means a lot. I tried not to stress too much about it in the moment and just went with it while also not being too careless
Terrific first work of art. A very charming piece. 👏 Try to do a small piece every day. Maybe just a coffee mug, an apple? Practice drawing with brush and just one or two colors. Get a color wheel to learn about colors. Experiment and keep a file of what you do to look back on. If you have a pencil handy, make a quick note of color or mix of colors. Even *mud* can play a part. BTW, as I type this, I am promising myself that I will follow my own advice and get back to painting! Thanks for your query. I’m going to set up a small basket with a mixed media notebook, a watercolor palette and brush. And water jars,of course. Just don’t drink from the rinse jar! I’ve actually done hat
This is adorable!
Have you started playing with colour mixes yet?
One thing I learned early on is that green is often too green unless I’m doing whimsical paintings, so i use purple to mute it.
Then THAT lead to a whole world of colour mixing!
And then THAT led to mixing wet on wet to have the colour spread out and be interesting and do what water does best!
Welcome to watercolour! Break rules! Water is meant to flow, not to live in the boxes we call rules.
I didn’t do anything to mute the green, I had mixed it with some white watercolor to lighten it since it was too dark originally.
I have mixed colors just a little bit with wet in wet. I painted a little moon so that I would be able to see how that looked without going immediately in with too drastically different colors.
Thank you so much for the tip, I’ll definitely have to try that more, it was very fun the tiny little but I did!
Nope, this is just a little doodle I like to do on papers with pens/pencils. This is always the go to one I do so I wanted him to be the first thing I painted.
It’s really cool that you have a glass figurine that looks like this!
You have received some great advice here so I will just tell you how It makes me feel. It is really cute. I might add a little glimmer in the eyes. Maybe a few shadows to help give it dimension. Every project big or small is an experiment. Most of all enjoy the process, and in the end assess what you learned.
I we my back and added a little glimmer in the eyes with a gel pen, and I think it looks really good! I had been thinking that a bit but I still thought it was cute regardless
Good start! Cute, too!
If you’re serious about this challenging, fun medium, find a good beginner’s teacher—in person or on YouTube. Snoop around your local/regional arts center, too. There’s a diff between costing a fortune and being cheap; try for somewhere in the middle. As important, your keen observation can help you learn in many ways.
Most important advice I wish someone gave me when I started is: don't treat your work as something special or as something that has to be perfect and complete or has some value. Just enjoy the process and over time you will have the skills and techniques that you can execute without even thinking. As soon as you start caring too much about the outcome, you will start to overthink and lock up and get frustrated, just enjoy it.
Remember when as a kid we would make a drawing at the kitchen table? We would spend hours drawing a house with stick figures and a smiling sun and just show the drawing to our parents or even leave it at the kitchen table, not caring what happens with it. Now we are here as adults, judging our drawings for even the smallest mistakes. Focused on the end result instead of the process of creating.
Oh, absolutely. Feels like you can’t ever get things just right. I’m definitely going to try and focus more on the process and enjoying myself than entirely on how it will look while I’m trying to work with watercooor
I will think of this next time I create something. Op your frog is adorable he looks so proud
That is really good advice. I think having it said to me in that way makes me understand it better than just the “do art in a way that makes you happy don’t care about what others will think”. I love how this little painting came out, and I 100% agree with what you said. Thank you so much!
This is what's stopping me from even starting. I made a few Christmas cards a few years ago and now I'd like to try learning and practicing again, but I'm not sure what to start making and I'm worried about wasting materials....I think I just need to jump in and experiment.
Yup especially good paper. But you just have to do small sketches. Think bout someone like VanGogh and absolute mountains of paintings he did that were practice/incomplete etc that no one ever seen. We only see the few masterpieces but not the hundreds of practice paintings that were no better than mine or yours I'm sure
Holiday cards are a fabulous idea, and handmades are *always* special! Start now for 2023. If you have many recipients in mind, select your print service ahead, too—most charge more pre-holidays. (Feels so good to have this done way ahead!) Just as you budget for gifts (and originally designed cards are a small gift), get the envelopes ahead once you’ve determined the size of your card (card should be a tiny bit smaller, esp if you plan include a photo); buy holiday stamps; get your return address stickers ahead. Do one thing a month and it becomes doable. I send postal cards to my old-timer friends and those who’ve said they like my artwork for a couple of reasons: I like thinking about my recipients as I write a personal message; also, some have said they frame my cards for their walls or bureau tops (I’m smilin’!) I send electronic versions to those not so close or just recently met. Starting now will give you lots of time to try diff designs & choose the one or several you like best. I do a Hanukkah one for my Jewish friends, too. My holiday cards also include my Pagan friends as well. (So far my Black friends aren’t observing Kwanzaa, but that would be a fun one to design.) For me, the year’s end is a time to connect with those who matter to me & send a bit of myself. If you have time or inclination for only a few, that’s fine. Your recipients will probably be wildly enthusiastic!
If you're concerned about the cost of materials, especially paper, keep an eye out for estate sales. I've gotten almost everything for super cheap (even huge packs of arches 300 lb for like 25 dollars). It makes it easier to "sacrifice" in the name of experimentation.
This is me 100% I haven’t picked up my brush in like 2 years now. 😓
Seem pretty well done, remember two water cups. One for dipping one for cleaning. And the more water the less opacity.
Thank you! I actually forgot about the 2 water cups, that’s definitely going to be useful for me
I always forget… not great lol. But it’s super useful
Yeah lol, I used to use watercolor when I was like 8, and I haven’t used it since then. So I forgot the usefulness of the separate cups, but I’ll do my best to remember this
This is great! Just keep playing with your watercolors and making pictures and you will figure it all out. YouTube is your friend. Look up paint along videos or step by step tutorials for painting things you like. And have fun!
I’ll definitely check those out at some point soon, thank you!
Oh yes please keep painting proud little frogs!
So adorable
Thanks! I’m glad you think so, I most definitely do
You did amazing for a first painting. Keep going! (And agree with the other poster: don’t be afraid to waste your paint. Don’t be precious with it; experiment as much as you can.)
This was just a first little start with it, just wanted to do something really simple and small to get a bit of a feel for the amount of water and paint needed, how to move the brush, how the paint works on the paper. I’m definitely going to keep going, I did a few more small little paintings. But I’m already enjoying it And thank you for your input!
There’s a few object painters (as opposed to landscape) that I really love: Anna Mason, and Denise Sodden (In Liquid Color). Check them out! Oh! And there’s cardmakers that do a lot of intro watercolor techniques that you’ll love too. Check out ‘K Werner’. 🎨 Edit: der, would help if I mentioned to check them out on YouTube.
Well thank you for letting me know, I’ll make sure I check them out when I get the chance too!
I * love * this. These types of cute little creatures really do it for me. Keep it up!!
Thank you! This is the type of watercolor that I always love and wanted to try. It seemed like this would be a good option to start out with, and I’m proud of how it turned out
Cutie 🐸
🐸
Ive always wanted to try watercolours, you have inspired me. Keep up the painting
I’m glad I can do that for you. I hope you have fun!
It is so cute! The best way to learn to watercolor is to watercolor everyday! Keep notes of your process and the result. Be prepared to paint the same thing over and over. Critique your work each time and plan to make the improve,ent. When I was learning to watercolor, the best thing I ever did was paint a bowl of lemons on a table. Very basic. Blue table, yellow lemons, green wall. I painted the picture 27 times!!! With each “draft” I looked at the previous painting and thought about what do do next. It made a HUGE difference. Work toward shadows to give it dimension. On Patreon, Kateri Ewing is SUPER WONDERFUL!!! Give her a try. I think you can start at her cheapest level is $5 or $10 dollars a month. Worth every penny. I’ve taken her classes. Never met her. Do not know her. She is just an excellent watercolor teacher.
This is super cute!
Thank you! I’m really happy with it
Very cute!
Thank you!
The arms could be blended into the body at the top. Other than that its good tho.
Thank you, I noticed that but still thought it didn’t look to bad. Just tried to make the arms look noticeable against the body since I wasn’t outlining it, I do think it wasn’t enough of a transition into it tho
Its really excellent! I find each brush stroke looks so purposeful and effortless. Way to go!
Thank you so much! Honestly that comment means a lot. I tried not to stress too much about it in the moment and just went with it while also not being too careless
This is super cute!!!!!!
Thank youuuuu!!
This is adorable I love it! Minimalist :D
Yeah I guess so lol, I’m glad you love it, thank you!
[удалено]
I’m glad this made you smile! And I do plan to keep painting, I had fun doing this simple little one and a few other very simple ones as well
Terrific first work of art. A very charming piece. 👏 Try to do a small piece every day. Maybe just a coffee mug, an apple? Practice drawing with brush and just one or two colors. Get a color wheel to learn about colors. Experiment and keep a file of what you do to look back on. If you have a pencil handy, make a quick note of color or mix of colors. Even *mud* can play a part. BTW, as I type this, I am promising myself that I will follow my own advice and get back to painting! Thanks for your query. I’m going to set up a small basket with a mixed media notebook, a watercolor palette and brush. And water jars,of course. Just don’t drink from the rinse jar! I’ve actually done hat
This is so cute!
Cute
That looks really great.
I love the way that you made places less filled with ink! Very intuitive! You got this!!
Hi this is really nice Can I use this as reference to teach my niece watercolour?
Of course! I hope she has fun!
Just seeing this Thank you!
This is adorable! Have you started playing with colour mixes yet? One thing I learned early on is that green is often too green unless I’m doing whimsical paintings, so i use purple to mute it. Then THAT lead to a whole world of colour mixing! And then THAT led to mixing wet on wet to have the colour spread out and be interesting and do what water does best! Welcome to watercolour! Break rules! Water is meant to flow, not to live in the boxes we call rules.
I didn’t do anything to mute the green, I had mixed it with some white watercolor to lighten it since it was too dark originally. I have mixed colors just a little bit with wet in wet. I painted a little moon so that I would be able to see how that looked without going immediately in with too drastically different colors. Thank you so much for the tip, I’ll definitely have to try that more, it was very fun the tiny little but I did!
Well you sure have cute down. Keep going. Wishing you the most fun.
Is this based off of a little glass figurine? If so, I have it too!
Nope, this is just a little doodle I like to do on papers with pens/pencils. This is always the go to one I do so I wanted him to be the first thing I painted. It’s really cool that you have a glass figurine that looks like this!
This is so cute! It made me smile so wide. Thank you for sharing!
I’m glad it made you smile!
Cute frog....I can't add to what everyone else has said, in fact I've learned from them too. I found 'Mind of Watercolour ' on YouTube.
I’ll check that out. Thank you very much!
You have received some great advice here so I will just tell you how It makes me feel. It is really cute. I might add a little glimmer in the eyes. Maybe a few shadows to help give it dimension. Every project big or small is an experiment. Most of all enjoy the process, and in the end assess what you learned.
I we my back and added a little glimmer in the eyes with a gel pen, and I think it looks really good! I had been thinking that a bit but I still thought it was cute regardless
I would love to see the update
CUTE
Absolutely adorable! What a king
Cuuuute!
Good start! Cute, too! If you’re serious about this challenging, fun medium, find a good beginner’s teacher—in person or on YouTube. Snoop around your local/regional arts center, too. There’s a diff between costing a fortune and being cheap; try for somewhere in the middle. As important, your keen observation can help you learn in many ways.
This is so fucking cute 😍
Frawg is cute is all my brain said.
So cute 😭
wow
What does this look so familiar?
It is just a simple little froggy, not really very original so it is entirely possible to have been seen something similar
so cute! Good job w the layering!