GW watercolor

=P here is my little version of ghostwidow using soulstorm I used the picture of her using it in the artbook for CoV as my base...
its a work in progress so updates to come...pic in water color... Enjoy...
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/2247/gwpaintdj3.jpg

Oooh, pretty colors! Love the soulstorm effects!

Are you looking for a critique on this?

Very cool. I give it two thumbs up!

VERY NICE! Why don't you get yourself a Deviantart account? They are free and most of us in the art forum here use it to keep track of our favorites and upload our own pieces for free.

=P I do have a DA account however its out of date so... not yet...I forgot to mention that this is actually a school project...so critiques would be nice...I hate watercolors.

Umm no offense but how old are you?

I'm only asking, cause I want to know if this is your first time with watercolors, and has anyone taught you how to use them before?

I can tell immediately from the painting that it was rushed, which if you're the kind of artist that likes quick results, well then you should never ever use watercolors. Because watercolors, even with a hair dryer on hand to help the drying times, is all about WAITING...

However I'm not trying to insult you as you HAVE used your colors fairly well, purple and yellow together (being complimentary colors) help to make the other color stand out.

The reason I say this is rushed, is perhaps you could have done a slower build up of the blue background into the purple, as then your effect would become more dramatic.

And since to me the effect takes up more of the painting then GW, then that's where my eye goes first, and should then be painted as the most important part.

I made a side by side by side using Painter on the left and Photoshop on the right of your original in the middle

I did this to compare the changes, with the goal of making the effect the most exiting area. By keeping that bright yellow at the tip of the swirls the brightest, and the trails or tails of the swirls darker and darker as they go away from the end/tip, you'll see that they stand out more.

Also since GW is black and white, I made her light too, but as you can see even though she is the brightest white, the effect is what stands out first because of both your composition, and the use of dark colors slowly building up next to the bright colors.

If you look at the Photoshop version on the right, you can see the smooth look I'm going for, if you look at the Painter version, you can see the textures I'm going for...

And that's something to consider when you do backgrounds in watercolor. They don't have to be super smooth. If you use a technique called wet on wet. That is to say, wetting the area you want to paint with a thin layer of pure water first, then dipping your brush into some of the watercolor tinted water, in this case blue and purple, you can combine that on the surface of the paper to create textures.

If you let that almost dry, then add another stroke of just pure water, you get what is called a "run" (as in running water) or bleed of the color, and sometimes that effect is nice if you have the patience to create it. You can't just slap it on, because watercolor has to dry in various stages to be used effectively.

If you want a crisp edge, say on GW herself, you let her completely dry before wetting any areas around her, or else you'll get a bleed you don't want. If you don't wash out your edges, by adding more water and pushing the color out from where you started, then you'll get a hard edge (as in the large purple area below her knee) where there shouldn't be one.

You were painting this light air like effect coming from her hands, that would not have a hard edge, air doesn't do that. It should be nearly invisible, so that it blends right into the blue sky you put in the background.

It's always best to work from light to dark, instead of the other way around, as once you cover the pure white of the paper, you'll never get it back. And if you mix your colors too soon, well then you get mud.

I'm sure you know some of this from having used it, but I promise you, if you take your time, the result will be amazing.

Good luck!

LJ

Nice explanation Lj. Almost makes me want to give them a try... almost.

What? You have no patience... Wait till yer lying in hospital, then ask the nurses to pose... argggh, will ya give a dying pirate one last wish?

I was never any good at watercolors.


...Now, crayons were a different story. Especially the big fat ones.

Here's an example of wet on wet and runs...

Though it should be noted he's using a flat brush, which gives him a wide edge of bristles to hold more colors... He goes really fast, and I don't recommend starting to paint this way, but it's cool to see an example of it.

I know its rushed and whatnot and I would restart as im not too happy with it myself, too many mistakes and as you said, I rushed it,being a 2 hour project does not give me anytime to correct mistakes or whatever else...I dont think im going to update this as not much really changed and do to recent events im dead mentally, thanks for the advice LJ