More Beginning Watercolor Tutorials

I was unphased after last week's mediocre watercolor paintings, and decided to move forward with my online tutelage. I found a youtube channel, Mr. Otter's Art Studio,  run by a couple of art teachers with some great videos. Most of these videos are geared towards all ages, which means they are good for all skill levels, especially a beginner like me. They also make a point to use inexpensive supplies so anyone can do the projects. Their watercolor projects all use Prang paint sets. Which can be bought for under $5 a set. I painted using my grandma's Reeves paint set that you can pick up at Michael's or online.

As you're looking at my photos and the videos, you may notice some differences between the paintings in the videos and the paintings I create, this is because I watch the videos and then paint without looking at them hours, sometimes days, later. I figured it was a good way to put my own twist on the painting (perhaps I'm deluding myself, but hey, it's art and I figure it should be creative and not a complete copy).


https://youtu.be/FBGfrwtQASE

The first tutorial is for another mountain scene with trees in the foreground. This one is a bit simpler than last week's painting. I started out with much darker paint and a different brush (I used a 1/2 inch angle brush), which made it harder for me to get a natural looking line on the buttes and mountains in the background. 


Be sure to let each layer of mountains dry before moving on to the next layer. After it was all dry I painted in my trees.


The second tutorial I tried was this one of a beachy sunset.


https://youtu.be/csuNORlCYYE

At first it seems like these colors are way too bright for a sunset, but it ends up looking pretty cool in the end. You only need the primary colors to make this painting, so any paint set will do the trick.


This tutorial recommends using a black Sharpie to draw the silhouette of the palm trees and distant shoreline. Since my paint set has a pretty nice deep black, I pulled up my big girl pants and used my black paint and a small angle brush to paint the trees and the horizon line. And even though that could have gone wrong in a number of different ways, I think it turned out pretty well and get's deemed "most successful so far."


Happy painting!



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