Occasionally, it’s good not to have a plan. And just paint.
I bought another watercolor board. And just started drawing on it.
I had no plan whatever. I had all these images of Allie from previous live modeling practices that I had to do something with.
And, I’ve never done a unicorn in my life. Plus, being a fantasy artist for this long and never having drawn a castle? Shame!
(Memories of the Walk of Shame walk in Dubrovnik, Croatia).
So what to do? Just combine them all.
I took three of the sketches and did them all. One very big. Two very small. And added a unicorn and a castle.
So the unicorn’s a silhouette. Cheating? Who cares?
When you’re the artist, you get to make your own rules.
Now, when I actually started painting, I had no idea what I’d end up doing. I know the two girls on the hill and the unicorn will be silhouettes in front of the fading sun. So, what to do with the rest? How about we just paint randomly?
It turned out pretty nice. I chose a bunch of colors I wanted to work with. Reds and yellows and Daniel Smith Moonglow and Windsor and Newton Payne’s Gray. Why not?
I wanted black for a lot of it to make the main girl pop forward. That’s why I painted that black.
And yes, I combined watercolor and gouache. Once you’ve painted many times with both, you get to see the strengths and weaknesses of both mediums and plan accordingly.
Do you need inspiration?
So, I must ask you. Do you need inspiration for your next watercolor painting?
Well, how about take a bunch of things you’ve been meaning to paint and just start drawing them?
Maybe a rose, a unicorn, and your favorite pet who’s now living in the next world? Just start drawing them and let it flow.
That’s yet another beauty of watercolor. I let the waters do the work for me. But then again, I think I have the perfect personality for watercolor. I was made to paint watercolor. I like chaos and randomness. I love it when things don’t go accordingly exactly to plan but end up with a pleasant feeling anyways. That’s one of my favorite feelings in the world.
For the skies, I just chose the colors that fit a sunset and let the colors do their magic. Almost like the tie-dye shirt concept. Let the randomness do its work.
Did it work? Well, some folks will love it. Some will hate it. But I’m totally fine with that.
The point is, with watercolor, sometimes, you should do something more random. Feel free to take chances. I have a lot of paintings that I either threw out or gave away. It’s just like cooking though. The best cooks ruined a lot of dishes experimenting.
The same goes for watercolors.
