Me painting with sketchbook and watercolor palette in one hand.
I decided to put that little travel watercolor palette to test. I picked up a gorgeous iris and lily yesterday, sketched it out and started the first stages of painting. My objective here was really to test out the palette, watercup arrangement and holding the light board all in one hand. I want to see if I can use it like this in the field without an easel for little studies. You can click on any picture to see enlarged views.
My travel watercolor palette with watercups attached
I show a close up of the arrangement so you can see the watercups; they are actually for holding mediums for oil painting, designed to hold the liquid even when tipped slightly on a hand held palette. They worked fantastic! I had to get over the habit of looking for my watercup on the table! You can see the ‘sticky tack’ or ‘blue tack’ in my palette. Yesterdays blog explained that better, so they get tested today and it worked wonderfully! Yay..two experiments that worked.My hand got a bit tired from holding the board and palette but this set up is supposed to be for quick studies, I worked on it longer than I would in the field.
The pictures are to show the stages of my painting, start to finish.
Iris pencil sketch
starting to lay in some colors
Putting on the blues, make sure yellow is dry first
Adding more details now, layering on more blues
Adding final details and darker values
Finished!
Click here to see Note Cards of this painting,
and Click here for magnets in my shop!
Hi Mary,
I like your painting method.
Just ordered a small copy of the above (http://marymcandrew.com/iris-watercolor-painting-with-travel-palette/ ).
At almost 89, I am again starting WC painting.
Like any initial painter, doing good WC painting will take time.
My best,
Bill (billmrsn@hotmail.com)
Hi Bill! I’m so glad you left a comment! I wish I had more step by step demos of watercolor painting for beginners to study. I’m glad you’re working at it, it does take time but keep studying watercolor paintings of painters you admire, especially when you can see it in person or close up pictures. Try to figure out how they did something. And I always found it helpful to study step by step demos by artists.
How is the new palette working out? One tip I can think of, when you’re ready to begin put a couple drops of water on each little pan of paint to get them wet. I usually use my brush and start with the lightest color and touch the brush to it to leave it wet…move onto the next one etc. If the brush picks up color just rinse it before moving onto the next color.
Keep in touch with your progress!
Mary