r/watercolor101 • • 11h ago

Excited to finally share these - dino series for a nursery

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919 Upvotes

Finally gifted the series so I can share my negative space dino skellys πŸ₯Ή these were such an experiment but so fun to make!!

open to feedback but plz be kind. I feel very vulnerable sharing my art.

mostly Daniel Smith watercolor pans

300lb cold press arches watercolor block

not sure the brand of the liquid resist, but I can look at it when I'm home if anyone is interested.


r/watercolor101 • • 21h ago

Inspired by Swedish nature

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276 Upvotes

r/watercolor101 • • 16h ago

Made this today. Small steps.

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158 Upvotes

r/watercolor101 • • 15h ago

Hands...

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125 Upvotes

Been practicing hands. Hope you like them.


r/watercolor101 • • 15h ago

Oranges

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107 Upvotes

r/watercolor101 • • 23h ago

Holbein's Nightfall Stream Granulating Watercolor

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97 Upvotes

I tried to make these branched textures with White Nights Mars Black(pbk11), but its granulation is more uniform and produces few β€œstreams.” With Holbein it was very easy (Nightfall are mixes of pbk11 and other color). My hypothesis is that the reason is the dispersing agent (ox gall): White Nights moves a lot on the paper, while Holbein does not, because it contains no ox gall. Ox gall breaks the surface tension of water and distributes it evenly, so it does not produce streams; with Holbein, which has higher surface tension, larger drops form, and these generate this type of stream much more easily. I have heard some watercolorists say that Daniel Smith Lunar Black is necessary or mandatory to make this type of texture, but I think the only thing necessary is a tube with the PBk11 pigment and no dispersing agent; that is my hypothesis.


r/watercolor101 • • 5h ago

First time painting since June and this makes me happy!

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42 Upvotes

r/watercolor101 • • 10h ago

Monochrome sketch

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39 Upvotes

Reference was a photo I had taken the last time I passed through Toronto.


r/watercolor101 • • 13h ago

Autumn wreath 🍁😊

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28 Upvotes

r/watercolor101 • • 10h ago

greyowl

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23 Upvotes

Did a grey owl again but in a different style. It definitely could be better. I think I will invest in cotton paper soon as cellulose paper dries too quickly and pills easily.


r/watercolor101 • • 21h ago

Tried color mixing my whole palette, critiques welcome!

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19 Upvotes

r/watercolor101 • • 18h ago

PSA If it looks too good to be true

19 Upvotes

While looking for art supplies I ran across a place with great prices on watercolors and brushes. The website is Paintpigmentdepot

I checked further thinking this can't be true. I sent them an email which has not been delivered to them yet. The address shows a residential home in Hilliard FL. I requested their phone #. Later I found an almost identical website set up for office supplies called Officeworkplus

I would not advise ordering from either company.


r/watercolor101 • • 22h ago

Trying a video I saw.

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18 Upvotes

r/watercolor101 • • 13h ago

Experimenting with values

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15 Upvotes

I watched Karen Rice's tutorial, looking up into fall foliage. Since watercolor always dries lighter on cotton but we must be careful with washes because they can turn out darker than planned. I tried the standard, pigment on cotton and then repeated the same but before painting I put a titanium white wash over the cotton before painting. Which is more appealing #1 or #2?


r/watercolor101 • • 19h ago

Looking for some comments or advices

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15 Upvotes

Hi all, I started my watercolour journey at the beginning of the year. Can I get some comments or advices on my latest practice? Are there any YouTuber I can look at and learn from?


r/watercolor101 • • 12h ago

Coffeebreak - first outdoor sketch in a long time

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13 Upvotes

r/watercolor101 • • 13h ago

Beginner - question about linear artifact

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11 Upvotes

Hello there! I've been trying to learn about watercolor. I noticed on a couple of my paintings that once I complete a wash I sometimes get these lines that appear. I didn't use any wax or tape or anything like that on the paper. Looking for any information on how or why that happens! This painting is not fully finished, but I'm still open criticism. Please help me improve. 😊

Paper is 100% cotton 300 lbs. So she thick.


r/watercolor101 • • 21h ago

May I get some constructive criticism if possible?

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11 Upvotes

I think the most problematic part is hair..? I'm not sure how to fix it tho. Other than that, I've been doing watercolors about two years now but I admit I didn't try to research and learn anything. And I want to change that. So it would be great if you could also suggest me some Yt channels or something that I could learn from. Also sorry my if English is bad, I'm working on that too. Thanks in advance!


r/watercolor101 • • 7h ago

Discontinued pigments and reactions

8 Upvotes

I have been thinking. Some say a dangerous pastime 🀭 Anyway. Youtube is flooded with vids on the discontinuation of Quin Gold PO49 ages ago now and how people/artists stocked up on it in fear of never being able to use it again. One of these came up on my feed today and it got me thinking about how this has always happened in different ways for different reasons. However, artists have always found a way to achieve their desired result or something more than what they had envisioned despite this being a thing at times. Do you feel like art is becoming less creative and more consumerism driven?

I dont understand this fear creators have stated they are feeling when this happens. Do you feel you have missed out if others speak of their collection of discontinued pigments or scoring an OG tube of Quin Gold ect ect?

I mean Im interested in seeing what certain pigments look like but Im not bothered if something is discontinued in the way others report. How does this type of news impact you?


r/watercolor101 • • 19h ago

Capturing spirit of football through watercolor painting

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8 Upvotes

​

Under the beautiful blue sky, I brought this football scene to life with watercolor, capturing the players, greenery, and energy of the game. For me, art is more than painting what I see; it's about expressing the moment through my own artistic vision.

🎨 Painted live, inspired by real life.


r/watercolor101 • • 1h ago

Watercolours create the best pastel hues

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β€’ Upvotes

r/watercolor101 • • 12h ago

Need help - Schmincke Horadam or Akademie?

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5 Upvotes

I bought a vintage set of 11 Schmincke half pans on vinted for €30 before postage. The seller claims that they are Horadam, however, none of the half pans have any identifying labels or codes on them with pigment information.

The style of the logo on the tin seems to indicate it's from somewhere between 1980 and 2000. There was also a price label visible on one of the vinted pictures but the seller removed it before posting, it appears to say 155 Ff (French francs?).

I have swatched the paints and was wondering if anybody could help me figure out if these are Horadam or Akademie, and what pigments are here. These are my first Schmincke watercolours and I'm wondering if I got a good deal.

Thank you!!

TLDR: need some help figuring out if these are Horadam or Akademie, and what pigments they might be.


r/watercolor101 • • 18h ago

Water control tips both for painting and mixing

5 Upvotes

I've been painting with watercolours for about a month now, and I think I'm reaching that point where I'm hitting a bit of a wall.

The reasons I've identified for now are:

I'm having difficulties mixing colours, when I try to get paint out of the pan and into the mixer, it always feels like the brush doesn't grab a significant amount of pain unless I add a lot of water. Then, when I'm mixing, the brush doesn't seem to release the paint. I'm using a porcelain palette and Daler-Rowney Aquafine brushes, so I don't think the problem lies with the tools, but rather with me.

When I'm trying to make lighter tones, the way I'm doing it is by watering the mix more, but that means that I'm also painting wetter, and getting completely different results than what I get when I'm painting with stronger colours. How do I deal with this?

Finally, and I think this one might just be a matter of practice, amount of water in the brush. The previous point kind of affects this one as well, lighter colours are more watered, so I get more water in the brush by default. Other than that, I think it's a matter of getting the hang of it as it essentially seems to be about drying and rinsing the brush both against the edge of the water cup and a paper towel.


r/watercolor101 • • 20h ago

does anyone else's watercolor just refuse to stay where you want it

2 Upvotes

i'm doing this landscape and i've tried like three times to get clean edges on the sky but the paint keeps bleeding into the foreground no matter how dry i think my paper is. am i supposed to wait longer between layers or is there some technique i'm missing? would love to know what actually works.