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An old post demonstration of a digital watercolour in progress - Think Green
This is a section of a Work In Progress (WIP) entitled "Think Green." My contribution to advocating protection of the environment. It has occurred to me that digital artists are 'greener' than artists who use materials to produce their art . When I think of all the paper I would have wasted by now, I'm proud of that! I do have little holes in my Wacom Tablet after 4 years of constant use, and I suppose it is not exactly biodegradable! I have also printed a lot of work that I won't ever use, or sell because it took practice to get the print right. So, I guess only a teeny pat on the back is due. I am experimenting with a new technique today in having the basics of the background painted before the flowers and leaves. Maybe that will help because of several reasons. 1) It will help me figure out the light and shadows on the plant and keep it consistent throughout the painting. 2) It will be neater than outlining the sketch with the Lasso Tool to keep the background paint from covering it. 3) It will make the plant really 'pop' because I want it to look like it is glowing with life and still growing! I started out by painting the background on using the digital watercolours, airbrushes and the watercolour brushes and blenders of course. Soft grainy ones , and the one I call 'Spotty' because it breaks it up into tiny dots of varied colours. The main thing is to set a Soft cover brush to the full jitter in Random, and to turn the saturation off in the Well, so it doesn't add colour. It blends two or more colours together to give a more graduated change in colour (a gradient). Step Two shows the result of this.
On a new layer apply some varigated colour using any blendable brush. I used an acrylic opaque detail with the Color Variability changed almost equally in Hue, Saturation and Value. The next illustration shows the results of using the blender I call 'Spotty ' with the main brush settings. After that I used soft wetish blenders and a combination of digital and regular watercolour glazes to get the diffused, textured look I wanted. I had to dry the layers and drop them at times as well. It took many, many steps and lots of experimentation and practice to achieve this.
Think Green
Joan A Hamilton
February 2009
This is the finished version with a faux purple mat. I did it like this because it goes together with two other paintings as a grouping better. It can be printed without the purple mat of course. I have the eggplants and the turnips to go with this for a very striking kitchen grouping.
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