I love watercolours.
I hate watercolours.
I love watercolours.
I don’t know how to use watercolours.
I know how to use watercolours, I just don’t practise.
I have a Let’s Face It class from months ago that is haunting me. I really want to nail it, but it is just not happening. The artist is Unyime Edet, and he makes beautiful watercolour portraits. The technique he uses for the class is basically one big brush, and singular bold strokes.
Reader, I am so not a one-stroke painting genius. I like layers!
I love watercolours, and I have a gey muckle collection, but I just don’t use them, and I really, really want to nail this class, so obviously I have been avoiding it for months. His second class of the year is coming soon, so I better get a wriggle on.
(There are no rules about completing classes on time, that’s just me).
With all of this in mind, I randomly re-watched an old Sandi Hester video last night, and she was playing with watercolours in a way she wasn’t used to. She said she had been inspired by another YouTuber, but I couldn’t make out if she said their name or not. Anyway, Sandi’s video connected with my recent musings about watercolours, and a switch flicked.
So, in the spirit of never giving in, I have started a new sketchbook – it’s a watercolour sketchbook I have had sitting around for a while, so I haven’t had to buy a new sketchbook to go off down a rabbit hole, and that might be a first.
Oh. If you haven’t checked out Sandi Hester on YouTube, do, her channel is a treasure trove of timeless joy.
I started my new sketchbook with a swatch page, choosing just the paints that make me think of drawing with charcoal. I went with this mostly because I had an unopened pan of iridescent black that I wanted to test.
It wis affa sunny so the photo is a bit terrible, but you get the idea.
To start the book proper I went with the reference I used yesterday, because why not choose a portrait with a complex hand included in the pose to make things more challenging?
I did intentionally go odd with the eyes, because the paint was giving me Stabilo All vibes.
I tried a different thing with another reference photo…
… and I really like this one.
It’s just paint.
Thanks for reading 🙂
Til the morn,
Suzanne
176/200
Thrummie Bizzum 
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