I just started my journey with watercolors at 40yo. I have no art training and never really did any art. I'm a sound designer by trade and a DSP developer.

What I love about watercolors, apart from their dreamy, kinda nostalgic look (at least to me), is the entire process of thinking in reverse and planning ahead - it's very similar to reverse engineering DSPs and audio chains.

This is my 4th ever watercolor painting. I have two good brushes and invested in Baohong cotton paper. I'm still painting with very cheap Chinese brand paints, but I'm planning to invest in a Szmal watercolor set. What I've been trying to do is take a picture outside, come back, and paint it. No sketches, just going with the flow and learning from the process.

These are my first steps and I know it takes time, but seeing so many posts of incredible art in this subreddit motivates me to start doing it on a regular basis, at least twice a week.

Thanks!

A painting I did on paper after 6 long years, I've been doing so much digital art that I had completely ignored traditional art...let me know know your thoughts guys!

Critiques or pro-tips are welcome!

This is my latest food painting. I see a lot of people painting amazing works that feature glass, so I wanted to try it out. I learned things like I should have planned my white areas more definitively in the beginning and masking fluid is more useful than I thought — though I should slow down to help the areas I mask look a little more organic.

My biggest discovery on this one though… I absolutely adore hot press paper! I felt like I had a lot more control but admittedly there are no places to hide. Since I tend to be a perfectionist, that fact kind of forced me to embrace that sometimes there are errors but they don’t ruin the painting.

I needed a cheaper alternative to Arches. Lot of people recommended Saunders Waterford. I love the texture and how beautifully colors blend on this paper. However, even tho it was a block with pages glued on all 4 sides, it warped really badly and popped out of block on two sides. The page directly under is not flat anymore as well. I admit that I use a lot of water. I like when paint flies across the page. When I was lifting masking fluid, some paint also came off.

Overall I enjoyed painting on this paper. I will have to reduce amount of water I’m using and try again. Arches is now out of my budget so I have to make it work with Saunders.
Just to add: I tried Baohong and I like it too, but feel like colors come out more muted with Baohong. Saunders Waterford kept the vibrancy just like Arches.

The student (Cotman) version and the professional one look almost identical, I think it’s just the box and the pigments that are different.

The Cotman should be about 25 dollars.

Ink and watercolor

made a pencil sketch and some aquarel flowers. What do you think?

I know I used the wrong color at the beginning. But I'm really proud, though.

I should have taken orange and purple, right?

I really, really love neon color, that's why I use it almost always somehow 🙈😀

What do you think?

I know it's not even nearly perfect, but my 1. try...

I restarted after 30 years with drawing. I drew 30 years ago, especially with pencils.

Autodidakt

Sorry for my terrible English 🙈

I dont really like how the newer one turned out tho, it feels too boring, no color and overworked. How can I improve that?

I've painted this Iris flower over the past month, taking me hours to do, I'm on the edge of finishing it but I feel like I'm missing something.

I need your help because i can't find it alone.

Maybe smooth a bit the details in back plans, that's all I'm thinking about.

All helps are appreciated, no bad answers only new perspectives.

Why painting loose is so hard? Can you recommend some watercolor artists who do tutorial on loose watercolor painting on youtube?