See the original photo here
I’ve done a few hands already, but this one involved water and a fish as well – two things I haven’t done before. It would be nice to hear some tips if anyone is skilled in rendering water and fish scales in watercolour – in a quick way! – I spent around an hour on this one and it’s around 28×18 cm. I’ve been looking at Red dust art and she renders water really nicely in watercolour, but i’m afraid that I’m still a little too lazy to spend hours on one painting.. I’m out for the easy solutions!
I think this is really well executed. I cannot help you with techniques for rendering water but I like what youve chosen to do to represent the water.
Thanks! Maybe it does work ok as a quick representation
The thought of a fish out of it’s natural habit doesn’t appeal to me, but your painting does. Nice work.
The size taken into concideration, i imagine that it was put back into the water – but who knows! Thanks!
Always helps me when i use some white paint.
In the water? I might try that..
Best hand so far! And the fish is awesome too.
Thanks!
Your paintings are really expressive! When you don’t compare what your “water” looks like to what you think it “should” look like, you’ll understand why PA Pict (in the comments above) and I like how you did it 🙂
You asked for advice: Art is about finding your own, unique intuitive way. Although I can understand very much why you’re looking for technique, I suggest to not start by looking for techniques (which easily leads to making technique your boss) but with an exercise instead. You can always explore specific techniques later (especially trying to copy paintings by others with which you resonate can be very enlightening), but then they won’t have the power any more to make you forget the essence of your painting.
– Take a large sheet of dry paper – different papers will give different results, but you can start with the cheapest if you have qualms … mostly, they are just a matter of confidence in yourself.
– Get your paints ready and the thickest brush you’ve got.
– Stop thinking or analysing.
– Take a couple of minutes to imagine the different ways water looks or flows, then zoom in to one of the expressions, for instance a gently flowing creek with pebbles. Feel that water as you step into it, or feel as if you were the water.
– Then just pick up the brush and let it do with water and paint whatever it wants – a little water or a lot, a little pigment or a lot, slow brushstrokes or fast ones, short or flowing… Don’t try to control what the brush does, focus on the feeling of water, let this feeling express itself through your hand and its extension, the brush.
– Some other day, repeat this exercise with damp paper, that is wet the area you want to be water (with a sponge or brush) just so that it feels damp but doesn’t look it before you let the brush do its job.
– Some other day, repeat with so much water on the paper that the paper is shiny.
– Experiment with combining a couple of layers, for instance one “damp layer” = pre-wet the paper, then let it dry completely and add a “dry layer” = paint on the dry paper.
As I said initially, the results change with the paper you are using.