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Watercolour Challenge 2 (Patreon)

Published:
2020-09-15 07:54:26
Edited:
2023-05-31 17:00:13
Imported:
2026-10
Tags:

Content

Happy Watercolour Challenge Tuesday! (I need to work on that, it's not at all catchy!)

Well done for a brilliant week of poppies. You all made some interesting discoveries regarding your brushes of choice. If you haven't already checked out the #dwpcchallenge on instagram to see each other's results I highly recommend you do so as it is so helpful to see how others got on with the task. If you have joined us this week, I do hope you go back to Challenge 1and have a go before embarking on this, you will be all the more confident with your painting if you do.

This is a private youtube link which only you sweet pea patrons have access to.

There is a quick warm up to start and if anyone feels they would like a bit of general guidance before tackling this challenge, please go and have a look at my Watercolour for Beginners playlist 

This week is a trust exercise between you and your watercolours. Water plays a huge part in watercolour painting (the clue is in the title I suppose) and yet, a lot of painters struggle to judge how much water to use. I noticed last week that some of your lovely poppy paintings could have used a little bit more water to blend a bit more seamlessly so this is a perfect next challenge.

We are going to create an abstract pattern using a single colour and your challenge is to give control over to the water on the page to do the blending. Water is the one variable you have when it comes to creating a range of tones from a single colour.

You will need

1 brush (large or medium depending on your preference

1 strong colour. I used Prussian Blue

A few sheets of watercolour paper (cold pressed is my go-to)

jar of water

kitchen roll to blot the brush

After watching the video...

Take a few deep breaths and allow yourself to think freely and not worry about the end result or even the route of this artwork. Trust in the single colour and the water and have fun. The challenge is to let the water do the work, experiment with different amounts of water and paint and see how it blends, just be careful to avoid a waterlogged page. Not only will this challenge your use of paint and water but you will also find that the speed at which you paint affects the outcome. 

I can't wait to see how you get on. For me, the biggest challenge is to just play and make an abstract pattern on a page. I'm a logical painter who enjoys painting 'things' so loosening up and painting without a subject matter is a very necessary exercise in itself.

Comment below with your findings, and if you are sharing your work on Instagram, use the #dwpcchallenge and tag me @dewintonpaperco.

 I can't wait to see how you all get on! Enjoy the process and have as many goes as you like. 

Have a wonderful week.

Harriet

xxx

Files

Watercolour Challenge 2

Comments

Anne Ridley

I just had to go with cobalt blue (I meant to use prussian!) and it worked quite well. I think I've got different blends . I tried again with Prussian blue but it didn't work quite as well, but I think that's because I didn't give it the variation in colour and water it needed. It's a fun exercise that for me needs more practice too gauge what I'm doing and the effects.

Amélie Dullstein

Loved it! I am a big fan of working with only Prussian blue anyhow. It's just a wonderful colour! I'm gonna go on playing around with this brief for a little bit, as I did with the poppies last week and see where this goes. Thank you for the inspiration, Harriet! <3

Lewisia Larke

This challenge really was a challenge for me, I like to have a plan in mind when I sit down to paint. But it was fun, I'm not sure I did it 'right' but I just added water to my brush each time I put the brush to paper until I had very little colour left and then went back to concentrated colour. I got a lot of blending, a few little bleeds but a lot of joy from this challenge. Thank you Harriet :)

de Winton Paper co.

I'm like you Lewisia, I'm not great at letting go but it's such a useful exercise to not worry about the outcome. I loved the results on your instagram. What's particularly good about this is the varied responses. I highly recommend you all have a look at #dwpcchallenge on instagram and see how everyone else is doing. x

Maria b

OK, here's an observation. Not sure whether this will make sense but let's go: - I cannot do abstract. Proven and tested - The bleeding depends massively on the type of paper : cotton bleeds well, cellulose does not. - watering depends on the brush. The more water it holds the better the effect. Hence black velvet by silver brush is spot on for this exercise - the best effect is achieved by painting concentrated and then touching a figure of pure water. In my case when I applied water first and concentrated colour after the bleeding was quite less and less aesthetic Loved this challenge Now I know that abstract art is not for me 😊

Lisa Parkhill

I really enjoyed the process and the knowledge that the outcome was not as important as the process. I love abstract painting although I find it more difficult with watercolour than say alcohol inks or acrylic paints. I did two versions of this challenge the second one is the one I posted on ig :-)

Kerry Persing

Like other Sweet Peas, I found abstract painting to be a bit of a challenge in itself. Enjoyed watching the blending take place and how different the finished products looked when completely dry. My 2nd attempt is posted on IG. Observed that the direction of the blend seemed to be dictated by which value had more water. If the dark value was good and wet and was “kissed” by clear water, dark tone bled into clear water. However, if dark tone was getting a bit dry, the clear water bled “backwards” into the dark tone. This re-emphasized to me painting speed and amount of water used matters! A fun challenge which I’m sure is leading us somewhere!!! Thanks Harriet for gently pushing me outside my comfort zone.

de Winton Paper co.

Hi Maria, It's a very good admission, I'm not great at abstract either, it reminds me of my days in A level art when I was just pretending to be 'arty'!

de Winton Paper co.

Great observations on the paper type. Yes, this will play big part in the success and results. Brush will also impact it to a certain extent. I'm so glad you enjoyed this challenge and saw past the initial difficulty of thinking 'abstract'

de Winton Paper co.

Well done Lisa. Yes, focussing on the process rather than the results is exactly what I was hoping for. Loved seeing your paintings on IG

de Winton Paper co.

Amazing observations Kerry, yes it's amazing how much variation there can be depending on what's been painted first and how wet etc. I'm so glad you saw the value in the exercise and I do recommend having a good play with this technique if you ever feel uninspired before painting.

Maria b

Hello Harriet, what are your thoughts on painting both sides of the paper? Do you use both sides or only one? Thanks!

de Winton Paper co.

Well, if you have done a piece with lots of water over the page it will likely warp the paper and make it rather unsatisfactory to paint on the other side. However I like to use up every possible corner of spare space when I'm practising so I do when I can.

Julie

Really liked that challenge and it was challenging for me too... had the feeling the colors I’ve created were all the same... it is still drying so I‘ll see how it will look tomorrow in the morning... I struggled a bit with finding different shapes after a while but kinda like what I came up with in the end :-) This was a great practise...thanks Harriet...and thanks for suggesting a color... I tend to avoid blue...cańt handle it pretty well... at least that is how I feel...ended with Heliocoelin blue by the way....

de Winton Paper co.

That sounds like a really good challenge for you Julie, yes I started struggling to create new shapes about half way through too. It's all about the journey and not the destination with this one. Keep experimenting with the range of light and dark you can get with the one colour.

Katie Hubbard

Really enjoyed this challenge. I think it highlighted to me that often I don't use enough water.

Andrea Ford

I've just been attempting this exercise on different papers. It has made me more aware of how pigment moves, how the pigment behaves (which is completely differently on cheap cellulose practice papers and 100% cotton papers) and how much water is needed on the different surfaces. I need to also try the same on the hot press smooth papers that I have, the khadi paper and sketchbook papers. I think I need to concentrate on one type of surface at a time though because it's probably why I have had such erratic results. Achieving a very concentrated but wet enough consistency is also something I need to improve at (using pans). Thank you Harriet.

colleen

This was definitely a good exercise for me I have trouble with wet on wet. I haven't posted on IG as I'm not sure how to use it LOL I've had an account for years but never used it. I will have to wait until one of my children or grandchildren visit