Topic awaiting preservation: Watercolor sketches (vague nakedness included) (big dl)

These are more or less some watercolor sketches I've done, to improve my coloring ability, which was previously (very) lacking.

The first three are/were for a school project, and I don't have the originals with me, only the prints I made. So, they look worse as a picture from a print, but whatever...you get the general idea. We had to title them to. I hate titling things. Almost as much as I hate watercolors (and suck at them). So anyways, the quality (of the pictures, but especially the pictures of them, is very shaky). 1st is goauche with colored pencils, 2nd and 3rd are watercolor with colored pencils over them.

1. The Baby-Doll is Mine.



2. Texas Madonna



3. Mist?



Ok. Good. Now I don't have to name them, and will just post sketches with watercolors (+colored pencil over them).




She was originally having sex, vaguely, but I decided that since I did it during school (art) it probably wasn't a good idea. so anyways. whatever.







Anyways, of course, critiques are really appreciated (as in, tear me up / kill my crits please)

__________________
War is Peace,
Freedom is Slavery,
Ignorance is Strength.

I have absolutely zero qualifications for critiquing any of your picts. Less than zero, in fact.

I just wanted to say, I've been here for 4 years and I've never seen anybody consistantly work for improvement like you do. There are some really wonderful, talented people here. That's one of the reasons I love this place. But more important than that is the constant striving for knowledge and being better. You exhibit that more than anyone else here, and I just want to say 'thanks' for helping keep the Asylum the living, breathing, wonderful place it is. If everything were statistics, this place would have been stale and dead long ago. You help us defy the stats. Thanks.

Anyway, your watercolors are very nice. I like the 5th one down (orangeynaked.jpg) better than the others. Except that she is missing hands, she looks the most like a real person should look (whatever the hell that means.)

I told you I shouldn't be critiquing anything...

^ I agree wholeheartedly. You have shown vast and continuous improvement.

The one thing there is to critique in these is the complete lack of highlights.

With watercolor, you don't have the ability - as you do with pretty much any other medium - to add highlights. You need to build them in as you go. It can be a little tough to get used to, and is of course unforgiving. Remember that if you leave more space than you need for the highlights, you can fill it in. If you don't leave enough, there's not much you can do.

Don't be afraid to lay the colors on heavy either. subtlety is a good thing, but you don't want everything to simply fade into the background.

What DL said about highlights and watercolours. I stay away from watercolours because I don't have the kind of patience needed to layer it up properly. Hell, I don't even have the patience to treat the paper before watercolouring.

If you can find them, you might want to try watercolour pencils.
You just draw with them like regular pencils, then make a pass or two with a wet brush.
Or you can dip the tip in water and draw like that.
The set that I have has a white pencil and kinda allows brightening up after the fact... kinda.

I like the second one from the bottom most. Like warjournal said, dont be afraid to lay the colors on heavily.

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Being relatively new and having made no contributions at all, I doubt I am even on the same planet as the guy who knew someone once who had a friend who was qualified to criticise your work...

...so I won't.

What I will say is that 'omgbig' (blue-ish nude, 4th down) is my favorite one, closely followed by 'orangeynaked' (5th). I also love the stylisation of the doll in 'The Baby-Doll is Mine'. That's it, no critique or anything, just what I like.

...except that I don't agree about laying-on heavy colours. Call me odd if you like, but I love the vague ghostliness of it all. In 'omgbig', for instance, there is a distinctly dream-like quality which I find pleasant. There is something suggestive in their subtlety.

Those wavering edges and translucent shapes also serve to create a detail that seems unintentional; your images convey some sort of motion - in the same way that no matter how still a model might lie or stand, there are minute movements that show them to be real and alive.

Maybe I'm taking this too far, but I know what I mean anyway...

Finally, I agree about the difficulties of watercolour. I've personally never found watercolours much fun, though it has more to do with my lack of artistic ability than a lack of patience.

If this is the grade of your school-work, and with your motivation to keep improving, you really are on your way to being an extraordinary artist.

Thanks all

DL, mobrul: I noticed that too. I'm going to do some "highlight studies" soon enough, to practice that.

__________________
War is Peace,
Freedom is Slavery,
Ignorance is Strength.

Watercolors used to be my medium of choice. I had not used them in about 10 years though, until somewhat recently.

You can see the three attempts I've made since getting back into them here -

A birthday present for my turtle-obsessed daughter from last year (1st watercolor attempt in 10 years):

http://in-dented.com/sketches.php?sec=new&p=turtles


A christmas present for my sister, second attempt:
http://in-dented.com/sketches.php?sec=new&p=alexandra_1


A birthday present for my girlfriend, done just a couple weeks ago, third work so far:
http://in-dented.com/sketches.php?sec=new&p=amanda_harkness2


(Not posting these as examples of what you should do, just a "while we're on the subject" kind of thing...)

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

Wow, DL, those are really great. I agree wholeheartedly with InI. I really like the portrait of your girlfriend.

__________________
War is Peace,
Freedom is Slavery,
Ignorance is Strength.

Thanks.

As I said, it's something I *used* to do a lot. I have a long way to go, as is obvious by some of the glaring problems with those, but all in all I feel pretty good about where I'm at and where I can get to...

BTW, that's my girlfriend's daughter in that one
altered the text on the page to better reflect that...