Practice.

I have a deck of tarot cards that I absolutely LOVE. For the longest time I had been searching for a set that really spoke to me as I found that the ones I had just weren’t very intuitive – I guess the Rider-Waite style just doesn’t do it for me! The Shadowscapes deck is so beautiful and I immediately found a connection to each card. Stephanie Pui-Mun Law’s paintings are so amazingly beautiful so off I went searching for more of her work. I found her Dreamscapes book at the library and have started using it to practice some basic techniques of watercolour. I am somewhat new to painting and I find her book is so simply laid out that even someone as new to this medium as I am can easily follow along doing the exercises. I found that my brushes suck (mostly cheap ones) as they lose their hairs all over the paper but nonetheless I’ve decided to work with what I’ve got for now and trudge on (so, so tempting to buy many good ones during the boxing week deals!).

I began with her first exercise which is a basic mermaid drawing, just a quick sketch, with a graded wash overtop. Then I added colour to the mermaid and realized that I was using too much paint and the layer underneath the mermaid did not show up at all. I tried a couple times again and I think my last try was more successful as far as letting the graded wash show through the mermaid so that when I added the layer of paint to her body it was darker at her tail and lighter at the top, with the help of the wash. It’s certainly not stellar and I need more practice but I am also learning that this watercolour thing is not as easy as it looks! So…I ordered the book! I am going to need A LOT of practice! 🙂

(these are not the best pics, I know, just quickies with my phone, yet again)

The first pic is from Stephanie’s book, then mine.

I think I like my first attempt the best even though it’s not at all like her painting!

More practice!