The Wonderful World of Watercolors

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only animator who's neglected understanding color and painting (see here.) Like Mark Kennedy, I've always focused so much attention on drawing and its associate skills that I never thought too much about color and painting.

But now I'm taking the plunge.

Why? First, Schedule 6 in the Nicolaides book has an exercise that involves watercolor washes. Second, I keep looking at the pile of coloring art materials in my supplies bin that I'm NOT using—Dr. Ph. Martin's watercolor dye paints, miscellaneous other watercolors, acrylic paints, Cray Pas, crayons, markers and colored pencils—and longing to put them to use (assuming they're not all dried up!) Third, I read somewhere that if one can become adept with watercolors, using other paint mediums is easier. I'm sold!

So I did one of my favorite activities: I went art supplies shopping! It was wonderful except for being rushed (had to fit it into my lunch hour) and I chose a bad time—back-to-school week—so there were long lines both days at the store.

But aside from those minor issues, I happily bought some paints, a mixing palette and some paper. I had already invested in a Winsor & Newton Series 7 #3 brush (because Alex Ross uses it, of course) and combined with the other brushes and paints I already have, I'm ready to go!

And I'll be sharing the results of my paint lessons despite the quality. I mean, I can't expect to paint like James Gurney or Alex Ross my first time out, right?!

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