May Sketch A Day Faves

This month has been a continuation of the #makeasplash watercolour challenge and it has reminded me of how much I like working with the medium. It's just so easy to set up, especially with block palettes. And since I can be quite lazy in the preparation stages of painting it is so much more convenient than say acrylic. If I was to leave acrylic to dry on a palette it would be a nuisance to reuse which means having to measure precise amounts of paint in order not to waste too much. But with watercolour just add water and hey presto your good to go!

Unfortunately I have not as been as consistent as I would have liked and missed quite a few days this month. I'm looking on the bright side though because I'm just glad I haven't thrown in the towel all together. Since i've been using watercolour paint all month it's a much more colourful month to look back on.

It's funny to see at what points I enjoyed using particular colours. Even though I like trying out different colour schemes, I always seem to revert back to certain colours and combinations. For instance near the start of the month I favoured greens and reds but then started to use oranges and blues more as time went on. 

I was so please with how my Lizzie McGuire piece turned out. It's far from perfect but the way the light shines from the middle was almost exactly how I wanted it - without using too much white paint and letting the paper show through. Plus I'm from the Lizzie McGuire generation of Disney so this basically screams childhood to me. "Sing to me, Paolo" could be the sickest burn of all time!

The heathers painting is in my favourites due to how tricky I found it to do but I'm happy with how it turned out. I managed to push through and find a way to paint it how I pictured. Whereas the tree painting just reminds me of a 70s travel ad because of the colour palette. Definitely want to revisit some 70s colour schemes.

I painted this one during Mental Awareness week and so wanted to create something that would illustrate how my head feels sometimes. These things can be hard to explain so painting is much easier. Plus I really enjoyed using the blues and reds minimally with the white showing through. 

 

 

These last few where just fun from start to finish and I can only hope for this to continue.

Even though the #makeasplash watercolour challenge is complete I will definitely be using watercolour more. Maybe not straight away just so I can flex my other muscles but definitely soon. Next month I'm aiming to do some acrylic canvas work. Back in January I worked on some small canvases and there is something so gratifying about seeing a finished piece on canvas. 

Also my goal for next month is for quality not quantity so that means I will be spreading workload out over days instead of small finished pieces each day. My black panther painting was done over two days and I was really pleased with how it turned out so I only hope that by lengthening the process I can I achieve better results. 

May has been a colourful one and may it continue! ;)

Hazel, xoxo

Watercolour Tips and Tricks - Video Playlist

Since starting the #makeasplash watercolour challenge last month I have slowly been getting used to watercolour paints and learning how to get the best out of them. Early on I realised how different they were to the acrylics I tend to use and so I had to adapt the way I painted.

Now I could tell you that I learned all of the tips and tricks all by myself but that wouldn't be entirely true. Of course I have picked up a few things on the way through trial and error but I also helped the process along by watching some tutorial videos. I thought instead of me waffling on about what I've learned in the past couple of weeks I would put together a playlist of some of the videos I found helpful. Visually seeing how watercolour paints apply, layer and dry has been very helpful for me. Plus sometimes you need to see it rather than read it.

These first two videos have some simple beginners tricks in the form of what not to do. Some may seem obvious but sometimes you've got to hear them in order to avoid simple mistakes.

 

The next video contains the basic painting techniques you can use and experiment with in watercolour.

This video talks about your painting set up and tips to make painting easier specifically in regards to water.

And finally a video from one of my fave art channels on youtube, MaryDoodles.  In this video she goes over watercolour supplies and what you might need. However she does miss out watercolour pencils but apart from that she's pretty on point.

Hopefully this playlist is helpful to those starting out with watercolours. I found these videos to be be quite useful in getting me started. Remember cass art's #makeasplash challenge is running until the end of May so I hope to see more watercolour on my Instagram feed. If you want to see my progress just follow me on any of my social media links (links in the sidebar).

Hazel, xoxo

April Sketch A Day Faves

April has been both good and bad regarding my sketch a day progress. Unfortunately I've missed quite a few days this month for various reasons. There have been a couple of days where I have taken a strong dislike to the idea of drawing. This feeling isn't new and usually stems from the feeling of being forced to do something. So I've realised on these days it's not a wise decision to force myself to draw something because usually the end result won't be anything worthy of uploading. Luckily this hasn't happened too many times and the rest of the days I haven't uploaded I physically couldn't because there weren't enough hours in the day. But most of the days I have uploaded I've felt pretty good about my progress.

I started the month off with a colouring pencil binge thanks to my new faber-castell polychromos. It really can make a difference if your materials are good. Polychromos are just so easy to use. Here are a couple of my fave pencil drawings. I began to work on my ice queen over a couple of days and really want to go back to that schedule at some point just because I really like what I managed to do and by the end of the year I want to look back and see some bigger pieces. Spreading the work out over a couple of days allows me to do bigger work.

 

In the middle of the month I went back to my first love, graphite pencils but also experimented with my promarkers. My addiction to dance moms has continued  and expanding to me watching Sia's music video Big Girls Cry featuring Maddie Ziegler and instantly loved it. Also Kimmy Schmidt came back on netflix so I had to commemorate it! 

Last month I said I wanted to do more painting since I hadn't got round to it yet. So within the last week or so I have gotten my watercolour out. One of my favourite things about watercolour is the fact it is so convenient. Unlike acrylics where you can find yourself wasting paint, watercolours can't wasted because if they dry on the palette you can just add water and they can be used again. Here are my fave watercolours. 

 

Beyonce's Lemonade is definitely a fave of the month. She is a true artist in my eyes. 

Looking back it has been a pretty good month. It's not until I look through my work for the monthly review that I can see it clearly. Next month I aim to continue with the watercolour, hopefully do some canvas work, try to miss less days and to aim for bigger pieces spread overy a number of days. Seems attainable. 

To follow my #sketchaday2016, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr are the places to be. Hope to see you there!

Hazel, xoxo