Watercolour painting

This is the last watercolour I did that managed it to the wall and not the bin! It is early morning on Dunwich Beach in Suffolk. On the headland at the back was the done of Sizewell B power station, but I left it out. And ever since, I wish I'd left it in! I really must get down to it again.

Yorkshiregel how long did it take you to do those pictures putting all the dots in (a la Seurat?). You must have a lot of patience. They're lovely!

Love your painting! So calm and peaceful. No wonder you put it up. You certainly have a style all of your own. I like it.

I think I did the A Sunday on La Grande Jatte one in about 3 lessons. It is something to do when you need to forget what is going on around you. Very calming. The other one I did a bit here and there at home, a bit like cross-stitch. Enjoyable though. My Art exam piece was 'in the style of Van Gogh using his palette' but as he didn't go to the Potteries it was a invention of my own. Not sure if you can see the detail on this, ie the little tea pots and the men's faces? Not a very good copy.
I like to try different things. Not too good at watercolours I find them a bit frustrating but I do like them and I have done a few flowers in my time.

Crazy woman! I meant Lowry, not Van Gogh of course! Sorry!
This is a flower one I did at home.

What I would like to know about water colour painting is do you soak the paper first? If so how do you stop the colours from running in to things. I know about layering, but I find it very frustrating nearly finishing a painting only for it to leak where I don't want it to.

This was one of my watercolour attempts: Called 'Benjamin'

I also love watecolours even though it hard ...I am gradually learning to understand what the paint does through a mixture of practice, reading books, watching on you-tube and one off day classes with various artists.

I'm no expert - for every one of mine that's worth a second look there are half a dozen in the bin, but wet in wet, if you can learn to control it, is a wonderful technique. My biggest problem for years was not controlling washes, but learning to put enough colour onto the paper. You will know that watercolour always dries lighter than when it is put on, so you need to go darker to avoid colours looking washed out. Sometimes that's scary - a leap of faith! I like your little study.

I have just had a look at your photo gallery, Yorkshiregel. Respect!

I'm so envious of you painters - I wish I could do it but I have no talent at all for that. It must be so satisfying creative and peaceful.

Here's an idea to get you started! You will love experimenting, I hope so anyway. Just give it a try, even using your child's watercolours.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zz_urNsuow

Thanks for the praise Greyduster, I still cannot get my head around watercolours though. I am not a purist as you can see. Just getting back in to painting and drawing after years of a painting block.

So that's how the cling film thingy is done! I'll certainly be trying that. It would be great for dry stone walls.

This is fun if you think you cannot paint. Great for shrubbery too, use brown or green, black if you like and paint any flowers you like. Put the paint at the bottom then blow the branches using your straw.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPIhsvUysGo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s3Fla9k9tE

If you are painting rocks, use sea salt and sprinkle it on a colour block. Allow it to dry then wipe away the salt. Great effect.

One I made earlier:

Lovely!
Nothing to do with watercolours, but I've had an idea for a few years to paint a mural on a wall made of breeze blocks in our barn. It's behind a section we sit and eat in on warm summer days.
What kind of paint should I use?

I used to do Muriel's. Loved it. I've always had a problem with that blank sheet of white paper, but somehow never had a problem with blank walls!

I used acrylics very successfully and varnished over the finished result with clear varnish which made it washable. It didn't seem to make any difference what the wall was painted with, plain emulsion or satin finish.

I might just try it! Thanks.
I though of painting the whole wall magnolia first?

The only paintng I am any good at is painting the walls

Another painter here ! I prefer portrait painting and have also done the `life ` classes . Unfortunately I always give my stuff away and could never display one of my own pictures in my house ! I would just feel uncomfortable about it . I am really enjoying the Landscape/ Portrait artist of the year programmes on Sky arts at the moment . I would think you would have to use either spray paint of what we used to call gloss to do a MURAL Tricia . Painting the whole wall first is a good idea !

Depends what you want the subject to be, but any pale colour is fine. On a small scale, in our last house our downstairs loo was tiny and dark so I turned it into a meadow, so the top half was a pale blue base and the bottom half pale green (both left over paints). I started off just intending to do sheep in a meadow but it sort of carried on. When I got a bit down I would vanish off in there and add something - a tiny scout camp or a hunt coming over the hill, a butterfly or two. Visitors would sometimes be in there some time!

What a brilliant idea! I would love that too. Very relaxing. Perhaps I could paint something like this abstract I did and pretend I was in my garden.

If I did I would paint the bricks with acrylic, but you could paint in emulsion I should think too.

This is a portrait of a slave/soldier. I did a project on slavery for my exam. The Arabs used to capture slaves and make them in to soldiers.

This link below: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zz_urNsuow will show you how to make an affect that you can turn in to things such as morning glory flowers or dandelions. Use SEA salt not table salt. Just add on a bit in a deeper colour minus the salt with a paintbrush to make the bottom of the flower and use a straw to make the stalk and leaves. Just having fun....using watercolour paint.

Sorry, not that link, this is the link I meant:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ewfn5Y8_Xs

aggie I love your painting of the tulips! Honeypot great painting of wild flowers. So delicate. Glissen, nice one of the girl blowing the dandelion seeds.