Watercolour is a great medium to work with (and pretty much the most difficult to master)... It requires a very different method of planning in most cases which is something many of us have trouble dealing with... Planning is key, being that you MUST plan out your entire paining from start to finish really before you put paint to paper. Watercolours are mainly transparent, and many of them stain, and therefore missplaced brush can mark your painting forevermore... don't think i have a painting that doesn't have a woops or two in em...
Having done watercolours for awhile now, taken a couple of classes (here there are some examples of my paintings this far) I'll try to mention some things I've found as well..
Unfortunately, I find that in most cases, it's important to have quality specimines for ALL your tools, be it paper, paint, or brush... Paper is the most important by far, a high rag content is important to have... Arches tends to be one of the best, but also has the highest price... I usually get a higher lb paper... 120lb is what i use.. still curls a bit with water, but for the most part it's ok when it's on a block (those pads that have glue around all sides instead of just one)... 300+ lb is recommended for single sheets, or you should see about stretching the paper on a board... Crappy paper tends to have the paint soak in to the paper badly, or not-adhere correctly.. overall it has really bad effects... on a 12x16 size pad, i would probably be prepared to spend at least $40... it's worth testing out those in the lower ranges tho, but they are usually hit or miss.. right now i have a few pads of a cheap brand called Fluid(from Curry's) that has seemed to work well.. they were on sale and i got a bunch of pads of different sizes, all of em under $15, which was nice... they aren't 4 sided glued blocks, but they are 2 sides, so its a bit better... i reiterate, paper is VERY important... we did testing in school, and found many of our classmates had to just go buy a better paper cause their bargain buys were just so bad.
Next important i'd say is paint... while you can get by when buying cheaper paints, some of them are really bad... Mainy, if possible, you should find out how many pigments are in your paints... it's best if there is only one pigment, but some have up to 4-5 to get some of the colours... You'll really see this if you try to mix a colour with another, the more pigments in the colour, the more likely they are to separate.. we noticed it was common with blues, for instance mixing with red to get purple.. a lot of the cheaper blue paints would create a very odd mix of purple, uneven, even separating into small blue and red clumps... but it'll happen with other colours too.. Some brands that seem to be easier to find, aren't too bad in price, and seem to be quite good (their ENTIRE line is single pigment) is called DA VINCI... They are out of the states, and they have a TON of colours, all of which are single pigments... the prices will vary on each tube, but overall they aren't to bad... M. GRAHAM & Co is another option, again all the colours are single pigment, another reason i like them is they use honey in their mixes, it's used to help keep the paints from drying out.. i dunno it just makes me feel good using an old-school style paint... winsor and newton is probably the widest known and easiest to find.. and for pretty much any case they are good too.. they aren't all single pigment, and they can be more expensive, but they are good... (their paper sucks however)... usually i'd try to stay away from any brands "Student" variety, for W&N it's called Cotman.. basically it's cheaper, and therefore less quality...
And finally, if you are strapped for cash (or just don't want to buy great stuff when your not sure you want to commit to watercolour) brushes are the first thing i would say you can get away with going cheaper... generally there are 3 types of brush... synthetic (non-animal brush fibers)... semi-synthetic (a mix of synthetic and non synthetic).. and natual (usually sable, kolinski sable is the best, tho some different brush types are made from goat hair, even squirrel).. brushes have the highest range in price, from the $15 roll of 50+ brushes, to the $6 brush, to the $30 brush, even single brushes for $150+! I'll let you know that there is a BIG difference.. using an expensive brush is definitely better... but it's not something you can't do without... The price is generally tied to a brushes ability to be soft, yet spring back to straight, and it's ability to hold water.. the kolinski sable is pretty amazing with the ammount of water it'll hold.. you'd find yourself redipping your cheaper brushes 5-6 times more in a single stroke of a kolinski, which in watercolour is important when time is of the essence... again it's not required, just REALLY handyI have a general range of the cheaper brushes, a number of synthetics, a few cheap kolinski brushes, and a size 12 synthetic round brush that was a bit more expensive, but turned out to be a really nice brush)... beginning, i would stay away from the bargain $15 packs of 20+ brushes, genrally they aren't that great... but i've found a large round (size 10-14) is a great brush, it can do fairly fine work, and still do large swaths... mine is an Escada i think? I found most of the Cotman (W&N) round brushes had trouble keeping shape, but i'm sure they'd do in a pinch...
So, as far as spending moneys, go PAPER>PAINT>BRUSHES... and it's easy enough to go for cheaper brands at first, and work up to more expensive stuff if you like watercolour.
As for painting you need to start with your lightest colours first.. there's no going lighter after you've put down dark... so, if it's white.. you have to skip that area... plan your paintings out from start to finish before you go.. don't worry to much about pencil.. keep your lines light, but don't worry bout erasing em.. even professional paintings have pencil lines you can see, it's not an uncommon occurance... DON'T STOP A PAINTING CAUSE YOU THINK IT LOOKS BAD!!!! every bit of painting is experience, which will help you later.. and a general rule of thumb is that a painting doesn't start coming together and actually looking correct until the last 10-20% of the work... also... take a break, look at a painting from a distance, take a picture of your painting.. these are all ways that tend to show you a different perspective, and generally help you to see how your painting looks.. i don't know how many times i've gone back to a painting and thought "geez, that looks quite good!"
As for inking, i've never used pens... they aren't really meant to be used for inking rewetting.. it could be worth a try to do the watercolour, and to ink on top of it... If your doing inking before hand, i'd recommend using indian ink with a calligraphy pen... it won't run unless the paint is actually wet when you start, and with the right tip you can get a much finer line than pretty much any pen.. dipping it is kinda annoying, but you get used to it... also be careful with indian ink.. it will NOT come out of clothes, or pretty much anything else.. and spills just keep coming up with more and more ink as you scrub... it's ok to get it on your brushes, but remember to wash it off.. the worst it will do is probably just dye your bruses.. that being said it's still not recommended using it with your good brushes, just in case...
your pictures are looking great! the only suggestion i could give is maybe to try using more water in your brush, a lot of your strokes seem very dark which is something you rarely want with a watercolour... if your looking for the deep colours and such, it'd be worth looking into other types of painting, watered down acrylics or water-soluable oils can get a watercolour look with it being much easier to get those deep colours... watercolour isn't suited to that in most senses, and tends to be much more toned down... experimentation is the best bet.. try putting water down on the paper before you even add paint (it works quite well, it'll suck up paint, but keep it within the bounds of the water, a good way of doing flowers and such (looks cool too, watching the water tension pull paint around the page)... making gradients by starting with paint, then instead of refilling the brush with more paint, you refill it with water, further diluting the paint in your brush.. keeping it going more and more transparent... pretty much every technique in watercolour takes practice, and if you really like the art, taking classes are invaluable experience.. all in all keep it up! and good luck!
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Originally Posted by Gidde
If you don't want to bother penciling in the shapes, paint the foreground first and work your way into the distance.