Colorways: Watercolor Animals

Tips, techniques, and step-by-step lessons for learning to paint whimsical artwork in vibrant watercolor

Shaunna Russell

• Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781633228092
• Topic: Arte
• Subtopic: Tecniche artistiche

Discover how to create vibrant, colorful watercolor paintings of a range of animals. With Colorways: Watercolor Animals, learn to paint all your favorite animals, from an elephant and a whale to a dog, cat, fish, and more. Each step-by-step demonstration shows not only how to capture the animal's likeness, but also how to use color to create magical, otherworldly, and whimsical paintings. In these tutorials, you will also learn how to use watercolor paint to suggest texture and fur on your animal subjects. Along the way, you will find technique instruction and tips for using different types of strokes, working with various brush shapes and sizes and using washes and underpaintings. Geared toward intermediate and advanced artists looking to play with color, this book offers fun subject matter and eye candy for all art lovers. The Colorways series teaches artists how to employ color across a variety of media in unique and imaginary ways to create innovative and inspired artwork. Focusing less on realistic artistic representations and more on creating expressive art, this series invites you to break the standard rules of color and let your imagination and artwork soar to new heights in order to create unconventional, whimsical, and fanciful works of art. Learn the customary rules of color, and then bypass them, with the help of Colorways: Watercolor Animals, a book that encourages you to use color for interpretive means and personal expression while painting your favorite animals.

Step-by-Step Painting Projects

Galaxy Whale

For this project, we’ll use fun techniques that allow us to experiment with colors to see how watercolor moves and blends to mimic the seemingly random colors that the universe has to offer.

I chose five of my favorite colors that are rich in pigment: phthalo blue, chrome yellow, vermilion hue (red), ultramarine red violet, and quinacridone magenta—also known as blue, yellow, red, purple, and pink! With just these five colors, you can create a tiny universe.

You might choose to use liquid frisket (see here) to block out the white areas, or you can add white sections later using white gouache or a white gel pen. The important thing is to allow the colors to blend naturally, and don’t be afraid to embrace the chaos!

1 Sketch the whale’s silhouette, either freehand or using one of the methods in the sketching section (shown here). Before starting, I suggest looking at some galaxy photos for inspiration. I like to pull up a few photos on a tablet or laptop and keep it nearby for reference.

2 If you’ve decided to use liquid frisket to protect the white areas, such as the stars, apply it now. Let the frisket dry before moving on.

3 The most important step is to start with clean water on the paper. You want the paper evenly wet and shiny, but not so wet that the water pools. Remember: too much water can buckle even the best watercolor paper. To avoid this, add water quickly and start working before it dries. This technique is called wet-into-wet (see here).

4 Let’s play! I like to start with deep purple for the darkest sections of space. Soak your paintbrush with concentrated watercolor and touch it to the wet surface. Observe how the paint travels through the water. Dot paint around your paper where you see fit. Keep in mind that watercolors always dry lighter, so don’t be afraid to add lots of pigment!

5 Add additional colors until the surface of the whale is...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Getting Started
• Setting Yourself up for Success
• Step-By-Step Painting Projects
• About the Artist
• Copyright