Koi Watercolors with Step-by-Step instructions

Hi!

Skittered to San Antonio today to check out the Japanese Tea Garden they had there. I found a not-so-high-traffic spot and painted some koi.

Plein Air painting is no joke. It's hard work lugging your painting gear all over the place in 103-degree weather, then sitting in one spot trying not to sweat on your paper. Studio painting is for wussies. It's all worth it when you gather a crowd and they exclaim how beautiful your painting is. :) That doesn't happen in a studio!

OK now for the step-by-step:

Step one: Get yourself a cool hat. I knitted this hat! And a lady was like: OMG! COOL HAT! Did you make it? and I'm all... YEAH MAN! FIST BUMP. Well, it didn't go quite like that, but close.

Step Two and Three - draw it, and paint it. When I draw, I go from general to detailed. When I paint, I usually do the opposite - from detailed to general, which some say is counter-intuitive.

So, when I put down a stroke, I try to get the Color, Value, and Edge quality right the first time. Unlike many watercolorists, I don't build up color and value from light washes, I try to get it right immediately. This is called Alla Prima painting, Alla Prima is Italian for "First Attempt".

First Attempt painting is fast. Faster than glazing. It's a little more scary because a big bold dark mark cannot be built up to. It's there right away. But speed is a huge advantage when plein air painting where you want to be quick. Another advantage of alla prima watercolor painting is the ability to soften edges. When you put a mark down, you can soften it immediately by working the neighboring color or by touching it with water. Can't do that when you're glazing.

 Whenever I paint, I try to paint things that are next to each other, relating their color and edge quality as I go. I'm not all over the place, but I do keep the overall piece in mind, in my head, about where I want specific values to go. As you can see, I started with the fish head, then the water around the fish, keeping it wet-on-wet so the water bleeds into the fish a little bit.

 Then I take a break. Here's me with a GIANT LOLLIPOP. (Cotton candy flavored.)

 I lied a little. This painting is not completely Alla Prima. I glazed the water. The reason is that it was necessary. In order to get large dark washes you need a lot of water. That unfortunately washes down the colors and makes it wimpy. The alternative was to glaze. The water in the painting was glazed with Indigo Blue. It's a great pigment to glaze with. It doesn't lift as easily as other pigments. I did keep softening the indigo into the fish however. This integrates the fish into the water. Remember: hard edges separate, soft edges integrate. If the fish were all hard-edged, it would look like cardboard cutouts.

 I added some subtle fishy shadows and voila, got yourself a koi painting.

 Now show it off! Here's me Vanna Whiting it up.

Well, I hope you liked my painting and my step-by-step. I know, the instructions weren't that specific. For that you'll have to go to my youtube channel and follow the tutorials. These are more like general tips and an overview of how I work.

Until next time!
Tiffanny

Watercolor - Zilker Botanical Gardens Lantern in Pond

Unfortunately, my camera wasn't up to the task of taking 2 hours of video for this painting I did today. I really wanted to do a time lapse for you, but it just wasn't going to happen. I need to figure out how to hook up my camera to a battery source and laptop at the same time so I can record video. On batteries it can only records 2 minutes of video, which would have made me have to stop and go every two minutes. That's a bad way to paint.

Well here is my process. I started with the darkest part of the water, but wiped off where I was going to put the fish while it was still wet. Then I dropped in some orange fish, again while it was still wet. I wanted the greens to bleed into the oranges to make the fish look like they are in the water. This was a special challenge for me. I've never painted the water surface, reflections, and what's underneath it at the same time before. Hopefully it worked out. You tell me. The rest of the painting follows my usual technique. I think I can generalize a few things regarding painting water though. Reflections are hard edged. Everything underneath is soft edged.

And that's all for today. Two posts in one day though :) I hope I am keeping you, my reader, entertained. Anyway, earlier today I said how busy I was. I'm not kidding. I'm applying for two grants, and they both require me to show all kinds of work (10 or more illustrations). I'm busy working on one of my grant-paintings starting tomorrow. If I win it, maybe some publishers will take notice!

I hope you visit me again!
Tiffanny