Watercolors and Drawing

           "Can I still learn watercoloring if I can't draw?" I get asked this question a lot and I have seen this question asked on watercolor groups a lot. The answer is simply yes. You don't need to know how to draw just to learn how to watercolor. In this two part post, I will show you how to do that.

          Let me start by asking one question first: Have you tried learning how to draw? If not there are many videos on youtube that can help you with that as well as many great courses online. You can also find amazing courses on Udemy, SkillShare, and Domestika. There are also many amazing books for the people who like to learn that way. Now let us say you tried all that and STILL you can't draw a straight line. This is when you can go through the route I will explain here.

          I CAN'T DRAW. Okay, but that doesn't mean you can stop from learning about watercolors and making art. So how can you do that if you can't draw? It depends on what you are planning to do with that art. 

          If you are doing it for yourself and you are not going to sell your art, then there are people on ETSY who sell line art which you  can trace and use watercolor techniques to color. They give you permission to use it for personal use only and if you share your work online to show friends always link back to the original artist of the line art that you traced and acknowledge their work. Another thing that I use is stamps and stamp sets. There are amazing ones in different shops online.

          If you are planning to sell your art then there are a few things you can do. You can use your own personal photographs that you took and trace those, or you can look for pictures that are free to use commercially online and trace those. Make sure to always document what you did and where you got your elements. Let me give an example. When I look online for pictures to use freely I usually have a picture in my head that I want to draw. I will look for pictures that have the parts that I need. Like I could take the mountain from one picture and add that to the trees that I had taken a picture of personally and liked then add a house from a different picture and so on until my picture is complete. Sometimes not everything works well together and I change things or add or subtract things. When the line art that I traced from different elements looks like the picture in my head then I start using my watercolor techniques to color it. Be extra careful that the things you use are free to use commercially.  This is mostly theory so the next post I will explain a little more with actual practical examples and some of the tools I use to achieve my own art that speaks to me.

RESOURCES Art

In this post I'm going to share some of my favorite YouTube channels, Instagram accounts, Udemy courses and Skillshare courses related to art. It will probably be mostly about watercolors, and mixed media though there are some courses and channels that talk about journaling, sketching and teach you actual drawing techniques.

YouTube Channels:

1. Helen Colebrook: Helen is from Journal with Purpose, www.journalwithpurpose.co.uk My channel will show videos about my bullet journal, regular journal and creative pursuits.

2. Watercolor Misfit: (**This is one of my favorites and highly recommended channels) Carrie is a Watercolor Misfit-also known as a mixed media watercolor artist.On this channel you'll find watercolor tips, painting tutorials, and a lot more fun content revolving around art! If you are interested in painting with her, join her latest watercolor beginner course, which you'll find the $10 off link on her about page on YouTube. You'll also find many drawing templates that go along with the videos on her channel at her ESTY shop! They are similar to adult coloring books-but for watercolor, but help you skip the drawing process.

3. Kirsty Partridge Art: Over the past few years Kirsty has been posting educational art videos to help improve drawing and painting skills. She loves using watercolors, colored pencils and charcoal to create artwork with.

4. The Mind of Watercolor: (**This is one of my favorites and highly recommended channels) Steve Mitchell has been a professional designer and illustrator for 30+ years but on this channel he's returned to his fine art roots. This channel is for watercolor enthusiasts where he shares tips and techniques in a quick, easy to digest fashion. He also does product reviews, offer challenges, look at other great artists' work and perhaps even have a few giveaways.

5. Maremi's Small Art: (**This is one of my favorites and highly recommended channels) This is my favorite channel for doing projects with mixed media, and crazy ideas that turn out amazing. Marta is a wonderful teacher and her projects are always interesting. She also does product reviews.

6. The Frugal Crafter:(**This is one of my favorites and highly recommended channels) Lindsay Weirich, AKA the Frugal Crafter, has videos that showcase a wide variety of crafts such as cardmaking, rubber stamping, art journaling, mixed media, sewing, knitting, jewelry making, crochet altered art and more.  Do you like to paint? I hope so because she has many new watercolor painting tutorials. How about storage? Do you want tips and tricks for keeping your art and crafts supplies organized? She has several craft room tours and tutorials on building your own storage solutions on the cheap.

7. The Art Sherpa: (**This is one of my favorites and highly recommended channels) The Art Sherpa, teaches art in live streaming, easy acrylic step by step painting tutorials. Lessons on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With over 800 free video acrylic painting classes you can learn how to paint easily. Its safe, inclusive fun and friendly Art instructions for new painters of every age.

8. Sealemon: (**This is one of my favorites and highly recommended channels) Jennifer makes crafty videos to help boost your creativity! I find her voice relaxing, so if her videos help you unwind, that’s cool too. You’ll find a variety of projects on her channel including DIY decor, bookbinding, art tutorials, supply hauls, doodle challenges, bullet journal ideas and more fun crafts!

**Note: I just realized that all but two of the recommendations above are of my favorite channels...

UDEMY Courses:

1. How to Draw and Sketch for Absolute Beginners

2. The Ultimate Drawing Course - Beginner to Advanced

3. How to Draw Cute Cartoon Characters

4. Pencil Drawing for Beginners

5. Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Perspective Drawing

6. Watercolor Mixing for Beginners

7. Beginner's Watercolor Techniques with Geoff Hutchins

8. Beginner's Watercolor

9. Learn the Secret for Successful Color Mixing for Painters

10. Pencil Drawing - The Guide to Graphite

11. The Colored Pencil Drawing Course

12. The Watercolor Painting Series - The Very Beginner's Guide

**These are just some of the Courses I've taken through Udemy, there are many more that I have bought but have yet to try because I'm working through other things on there.

SkillShare Classes:

Originally, I was going to do a list of classes that I have taken though SkillShare but to be honest, compared to the indepth classes that I have seen on Udemy...I decided not too. Don't get me wrong there are some honest to goodness classes that I have enjoyed on there like the Christine Nishiyama Series and the Brent Eviston Series but the rest of the classes are just too short to qualify as real life classes.

Instagram Accounts:

1. Anna Koliadych: @dearannart

2. Peggy Dean: @thepigeonletters

3. Garima Srivastava: @mylittlebasil.studio

**These are the ones I follow on Instagram but I'm sure there are many many more.

I hope this helps you with your art journey and maybe make this whole social distancing a little easier. Stay safe everyone!

Starting from the Beginning: Art

          I've been away from my art supplies and drawing for a long time mostly because I have Psoriartic Arthritis, which cased a deformity in my dominant hand. I can hold the pencil or brush but not for a long time and not in the way that I used to hold them before so now I'm relearning everything while working with that deformed hand. Doctors orders, because using the hand helps with physical therapy.  

          So now I am working my way slooooowly through a class in Udemy.com called How to Draw and Sketch for Absolute Beginners with an amazing instructor. Once I finish this class I'm going to do a perspective class and an anatomy class with the same instructor because I like his style. He starts slowly and builds on what you have already learned in the previous class but you must be willing to put in the work.

          Also on the watercolors front I realized that even with tracing elements from different reference pictures my "coloring" skills were pretty 2 dimensional and colors are not as great as I would like them to be.

Traceable from Art Sherpa on YouTube.

So now I am working my way through a book on called "Exploring Color Workshop". It starts from the basics of how to mix the primary colors to get secondary and tertiary colors. This is what I am looking for right now. To just have fun while I learn. 

This is my set up. Paper from SAA which I use for practice because it is cheap and at the same time one sheet can be cut into 2-4 depending on how big you want your work to be. A porcelain palette, which was actually a plate for samples. I have two of them and use either one or two depending on how many colors I am using or need to mix. I usually use Windsor & Cotman paints but I decided to go simple and use the Daniel Smith Starter pack which has 3 cool primary colors and 3 warm primary colors. Two cups of water, one to clean the brush and one for dipping or for adding water to mix the paints, a pipette to get water and a round brush.

I did the exercise in the book with both the warm primaries and the cool primaries and I loved playing with the paints. Here are the results.

The exercise in the book.

I did the cool colors first and then the warm colors. I found the warm colors harder to mix and keep getting muddy but I wasn’t really sure if that was from the paints or the water was too dirty by the end and that made my mixes muddy. I’ll probably redo these again before moving to the next exercise.

To trace or not to trace...that is the question.

          If you are anything like me then you have tried to study how to draw, taken classes, done all the exercises and read all the books and still suck at it. It might be because my right hand, which is my dominant hand, is a little warped from psoriartic arthritis. So holding a pencil (or any iteration of) for a very long time is out. Also, my perception when looking at things is totally out of wack for some reason. What I see and what I draw turnout to be totally different.  So I bought a light box and started to trace stuff. I always use free pictures on the internet or pictures that the owner gave permission for me to use. I also noticed that sometimes I would trace one thing from one picture and another from another picture and it becomes something entirely new and unique to me. Every once in a while I have this question in my head...should I try learning to draw again? Tracing feels like I am cheating! 

          The other day I was watching one of my favorite YouTube channel and the artist said that she sketches in her sketchbook and then uses a light box to trace her sketch onto watercolor paper. A light went up in my head...how did I not think of this use for tracing? So even people who draw use tracing...granted it is their own work but still tracing is a tool! 

          Another YouTube Channel was also talking about tracing but as a tool for learning to draw. They said that if you trace your hand will get used to drawing and if you practice enough after a while it will become second nature to draw but that everyone has to start somewhere. 

          These are just some musings that were running around in my head that I needed to share. So in the end...to trace or not to trace...that is up to you. But please be careful when you do trace. Make sure that if the picture is not free to use that you ask the original artist or photographer. Make sure they are okay with you using their work. If you sell your work make sure you mention that. Some artists don't mind you copying their work for personal use but will draw the line at selling or using them for competitions. Always, always make sure to mention the name of the artist or photographer when sharing your work online. Give them the credit they are due.   

Content of the Blog

Hello everyone,

          Thanks to everyone who is following my blog so far. I’d like to update you all on what the content of the blog will be and what I have been doing lately. 

          You may have noticed that the blog no longer updates as much as previously, this is because I’ve been thinking about the direction of the blog. In the coming weeks you will notice a change in the way the blog works. I’ll still be doing some reviews of my favorite subscriptions but you’ll also see me sharing some creative projects I’m working on. I’ll also be dedicating some posts to all things Kpop, journaling, and Asian dramas that I have watched and liked.

          I hope you like what you see on my blog and for everyone who follows me to find something in the new content that they are interested in.