Watercolor painting by
Elizabeth Hall
Elizabeth Hall's watercolor learning experience:
Watercolor painting has started to become a bit of a struggle for me. It seems to me that as I learn more about how paintings should look, and how to achieve particular effects I have become more frustrated. One of my biggest challenges is that when I paint portraits I find it difficult to make a smooth skin texture with out loosing definition around the nose and other subtle areas of the skin. Also, when I correct the marks left by the water pudding, I always end up with similar marks in different areas once the new water dries. Then, after all this correcting, the color mixes together too much and I am left with a bland, flat-looking uniformity of color which takes away both interest, and a three dimensional quality from the portrait.
I feel I have improved somewhat in terms of proportions. I have done this by being sure to measure more precisely with my eyes during the sketching stage. I guess due to mentally juggling the information I now have while I paint, the end product has lost some spontaneity and vitality, but gained realism. My next goal will be to work towards a balance of precision and free, casual, graceful brushwork.
