Water color on paper

Like most young aspiring artists, I too started with water colors. Little did I realize that it was one of the toughest media to start on! I quickly learned that water color on paper is an unforgiving medium and that I had but one chance to get it right or end up trashing a lot of paper. Though frustrating at times, it eventually gave me the patience and perseverance that are essential qualities in artists.

Dancing Duo

The discerning eye of an artist will at once see the flaws in the three finished works displayed here. The paper is warped and slightly moth eaten revealing its age. Yes, they were done in the mid seventies! Dancing Duo and Meera were painted on textured paper. Swami Vivekananda was painted on fine grain smooth paper.

Meera

Now that I am dabbling in Oil on Canvas, I decided to go back to my early water color paintings and paint these images in Oil. Meera is still on the easel and I hope to finish it soon.

Swami Vivekananda

Free resources:

Rod's Watercolour Painting Demos - step-by-step illustrated lessons on specific watercolor painting subjects, including instruction on how to paint magnolias, roses, a bowl of fruit, a garden fairy and much more.

Watercolor and More: How Did You Paint That? - brief, illustrated instructional overviews on how specific watercolor paintings and watercolor effects were created, with instruction on how to paint a watercolor leaf, watercolor snow and more

Watercolor-Online Articles and Tutorials - a collection of instructional material from a variety of authors, including "Make your Watercolors Look Professional", "The difference between "Mixing" and "Visual" complements", "How to paint Backward", "Facts about Watercolor Palettes", "Design Awareness" and more

handprint : watercolors - illustrated guides to a range of topics on watercolor painting, covering watercolor papers, how to test watercolor papers, how papers are made, preparing papers for painting, stretching papers, storing, mounting & framing, watercolor brushes, brush types & construction, selecting brushes, brush care & storage, other application tools, how watercolor paints are made, how to test watercolor paints, color psychology, color mixing theories, color wheels, mixing with a color wheel, tonal value, exploring a paint wheel, watercolor palette types, laying a wash, painting outdoors and more

Barbara Simmons: Watercolor Tips - an archive of watercolor tips and instruction on artistic principles, covering such topics as color dominance, composition editing, composition with a model, focal area, gradation, guidelines for creating a successful painting, making darks in watercolor, mixing color, negative space, positive shapes, principles & elements of design, semi-neutral or neutral colors, the design principle dominance, the light source, the tetrad, the third tetrad, warm/cool relationships, working with a large pallette selection, working with photo references and more