Cactus Line and Wash Video

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One of my favorite watercolor techniques is the line and wash. It means using either ink, pen or even pencil to draw or sketch then overlay it with watercolor wash (diluted watercolor paint). I mostly sketch using a pen because I prefer the spontaneity of capturing what I see around me. This cactus painting was sketched from one of our newly bought cactus plant which sadly died a few days ago. It was a good thing I sketched it so I … Read More

27: Warmth

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Elephants are one of my favorite animals. They are huge and may seem quite intimidating but they exude warmth and calm. I think I have never painted animals before and so May will be a theme of just painting them. I might reference from some non copyright photos at Paint My Photo since I don’t photograph animals much. In this painting, I used a variety of earthy colors. I started with yellow ochre for the lighter areas then quickly added burnt sienna … Read More

5: Peruvian Lily

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Painting without an initial sketch forces me to truly see a subject in its simplest form. It trains my eye to mentally gauge the position of the patterns. It is challenging but I think this act of painting is the most wonderful. What went well– Painting with water plus a little paint (like a wash) creates a subtle look on the petals without the obvious hard edges. The added red splashes on the upper petal was achieved by re-wetting the … Read More