Teaching Myself Watercolor, Color Theory and Color-Mixing and Drawing

Apr 26, 2021

1. Color Studies

This past year I have taken up watercolor. With a background in New Media Design, it has been refreshing to step away from the computer and create using water, paper, paint.

I have also been brushing up on color theory. Lindsay Stripling’s class on Creativebug, Playing With Watercolor got me started with color mixing and the section on mixing neutral colors opened the door to the near limitless colors that can be mixed with my Cotman Watercolor Sketchers Pocket Box.

Here are some examples of exercises I have done from David Hornung’s book COLOR: A Workshop for Artists & Designers to deepen my understanding of color theory. I continue to explore color theory and experiment with color in my sketchbook and look forward to exploring color theory more as I enter into my design studies.

Procreate Color Studies

Six color studies exploring hue, value and saturation from the exercises in David Hornung's book Color: A Workshop for Artists & Designers — Color studies done in Procreate exploring hue, value and saturation.

Watercolor Studies done with Cotman Watercolor Sketchers Pocket Box

A watercolor color wheel using three colors from Winsor & Newton’s Cotman colors Intense Blue, Cadmium Yellow Hue and Alizarin Crimson to mix secondary colours and neutrals — Color wheel using Cotman Intense Blue (Phthalo Blue), Cadmium Yellow Hue, and Alizarin Crimson. Pimaries, secondaries, tertiaries and neutrals.

Two-color mixing and neutrals mixed from the three primaries in the color wheel above. Discovering what I can do with my paints.

2. A Character Spread From my Sketchbook

These characters are the result of an exercise I did from Lynda Barry’s Book Making Comics. She calls on the work of Ivan Brunetti to draw a simple character using basic shapes for the head and body embellished with simple features. Add details and voila! You’ve got some characters. I was also practicing negative painting techniques here.

Watercolor illustration of two owls, a bird and a Sherriff by Shelley Whitehead aka Watercolor Keener — Two owls, a bird and the Sherriff.

Watercolor illustration of a bird and a Sherriff by Shelley Whitehead aka Watercolor Keener — A bird and the Sherriff.

Watercolor illustration of a two owls by Shelley Whitehead aka Watercolor Keener — Two owls.

3. Negative Painting

I’ve learned watercolor painting often requires painting around a shape. This is called negative painting. It’s tricky, and something I keep practicing. My goal here was simple. Use basic shapes and create a sense of depth. At least it worked out in some parts of the image. I was inspired by this Emily Carr painting.

4. Drawing

Drawing. Every design, every painting starts with an idea/concept and a drawing. Here are some drawings from my sketchbook and a few I have done in Procreate.

I did this illustration exercise of a chair in Lindsay Stripling’s class Drawing with Watercolor. We traced the chair and transferred the drawing to watercolor paper. Now paint the chair with a limited palette. We all did the same chair. They all looked different.

A series of birds. I focussed on simple shapes and using a limited three color palette while working in Procreate.

This is a Procreate drawing of my brother’s late pug dog, Mia. I focussed on basic shapes and values with more detail in the face, the point of focus for this drawing.

Esté MacLeod provided the prompt for this drawing of leaves. First, observe some plants and the structure of the leaves and branches. Start with a number and make a leaf out of it. Now draw a plant based on what you’ve observed and use different numbers as the starting place for more leaves.

5. Composition

How will I construct my image? Using values and composition, mostly. A static tree. Negative space. The illusion of depth. Visual weight. Fast thumbnails. Observe. Compose.

Watercolor Keener