Direct Watercolor, Day 2 and 3

Here are pieces from day 2 and 3 of the Direct Watercolor challenge.

This one was done at a life drawing session. Going straight to color with an unforgiving subject (because you can’t totally mess up the proportions in life drawing) means I need a study before the watercolor piece.

The charcoal drawing I did in a 20 minute session before the watercolor piece is of the complete figure, but it helped because I’d spent a whole 20 minute session drawing and understanding this pose.

Day 3 was simpler. Landscapes are more forgiving subjects, especially when there isn’t complex perspective involved.

I wanted to capture the scorching heat. I kept my color palette limited and worked in my first shapes (very) wet-in-wet. The trick after that was just to not mess with those first shapes too much.

Here’s a close up of a bit of the piece I liked. I added some white gouache highlights at the very end. Knowing I’ll do this at the end frees me up to paint boldly. It keeps me from painting gingerly around my precious whites.

If you’re doing the challenge, how is it going for you? For now I’m just focussed on working on a piece a day. It’s too early to look at the work for progress, after all!

You can join the Direct Watercolor group on facebook here. When you post, tag your work with #30x30DirectWatercolor2018