Watercolor Wednesday 12

Over the past couple of weeks I've been slooooooowly working towards getting some more paintings done. One attempt was derailed by a trek out to my boyfriend's old hometown for a wedding (and subsequently having to babysit his parents' unruly puppy), and another was vanquished by sheer laziness.

Then, miraculously, I found myself bored enough to get some work done earlier this week! This particular painting is of some characters I've been doodling for a little while now: a rotund dopey-looking fairy, a perpetually alarmed goblin and... whatever the heck the vaguely owly thing is. I did a rough layout in photoshop and traced it onto paper using a light blue pencil, where I proceeded to fix up the drawing and add the details I had missed.

These are developmental sketches for the goblin guy and his creepy friend. The little girl with the squid hat is my interpretation of one of these cat doodles.


And here's the finished product. My goal for this painting was to get more contrast and vibrancy out of the colors, which is something I've been struggling with for a while. Subtle color gradations and shading are, surprisingly, the easiest thing to get with watercolors—all you need is a bit of tissue paper to take away unwanted pigment.

Here's another painting I finished shortly after the first one. I used the same method as before, sketching out a rough guide and then tracing it off onto the paper. This time I didn't fuss with the lineart as much before I started painting, and I think I like it a little more because of that.