I felt it nagging today, and as such I felt a little unsettled. I could hear that little voice just telling me; \’Check your messages, it won\’t take long.\’ It took a lot of effort to resist it, but I did. And I feel proud of myself. I buried my head in housework, simple things like washing up or emptying the bin when I heard it calling to me; so far it all seems to be working out all right.

It\’s hard just keeping to my blog page and staying there, but I\’m doing a good job of resisting so far. I think as soon as I get over this main hurdle, it will get easier.

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The second lesson was taking the image above a bit further with some more washes.

I repeated the creation of my monochrome image, mostly due to the fact I was unhappy with a large area of dark hill in my first. That\’s a hard part about watercolour, there isn\’t a way to lighten it once you\’ve made a mistake like that!

The process involves adding two colours over the top of the painting – blue for the sky, green for everywhere else. I think it\’s purpose is to practise more with washes; which seem to play a big part in the watercolour process.

So I came across a bit of an issue with this one. My paintbrush never seemed to store enough solution (Paint and water) to run across my paper. Bare in mind, I am only making small paintings at the moment 6×4 at the most. I\’m not entirely certain why, I\’ve created enough wash and I\’m not running out. So I seem to think it\’s the brush.

Readers, if you\’re painters and use watercolours yourself, what sort of brushes do you use? Do you have any recommendations to a watercolour newbie? I would love to hear from you on this, as I don\’t believe mine to be a very good make despite it being a soft headed brush.

Positive outcomes;

• Added colour to the painting without the colour blending with the black
• Successful washes despite having to return several times to the palette

Negative outcomes;

• Not enough tonal range on initial painting. I think this was due to being hesitant with the black compared to the previous painting where I had that really dark patch. So, I need to find a happy medium between the two in future.
• Lack of patience with waiting for areas to dry before adding more washes!!