Direct Watercolor Strategy #2: Do a small study

More strategies if direct watercolor is not your go-to method, but you’re still doing the Direct Watercolor challenge.

Strategy #2: Do a Small Study First
Line comes easy to me. Shape is harder. Sound familiar? If that is you, then here’s something you can do:
Start with line. And then block in the shapes over it.

But that isn’t direct watercolor, obviously. It’s your quick 5-minute study. I use this to understand how shape works. Line gives me the idea of some control, proportions and composition; and then it’s easier to switch to thinking in shape. The one thing that was quickly obvious when I blocked in shape was that I was going to need a sky shape if I wanted that turret to stand out, so I added one (see the notes on my study below).

Once that was done, and I’d spent some time getting to where I could see in shape, it was easier to jump in with direct watercolor.

As with the last post, I leave the white I can leave easily (like the turret which I thought was important to leave paper-white). The rest of the detailing and little rim lighting goes in later with white gouache.

That’s Strategy #2: Do a Small Study First

I’m going to keep a running list here:

Strategy #1: • Pick a forgiving subject
Strategy #2: • Do a Small Study First

If you haven’t joined in yet, join the Direct Watercolor group on facebook here. And when you post, tag your work with #30x30DirectWatercolor2018