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bohobella — Stardust
Published: 2010-10-08 18:56:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 2068; Favourites: 40; Downloads: 0
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Description
David Bowie transforming.--
Year| 2010
Size| 9" x 9"
Medium| Watercolor, Acrylic, Gel, Fabriano Cold-Pressed Watercolor Paper
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Comments: 41
I like you and I like watercolors, even in their pencil form, so I shall critique you and be the horrible person I am at helping people.
One, gel medium and loose pigments can work and work quite well, but watercolor pencils are pigment plus a fancy little water soluble binder. It doesn't help that watercolors are transparent regardless, so gel medium doesn't really help you out with the pencils here. With acrylic its another story, though since you were using your paints as transparent paints you might as well have used water.
Use your gel medium with straight acrylic next time. It's purpose is mainly to loosen the consistency of paint without diluting the color, so I think you'll find it's useful most when painting large areas of one color.
You seem like you have a problem with transitioning from color to clear. It was the only thing I personally couldn't figure out with patience until I found my special helper. I'll bequeath to you my ultimate watercolor secret, the waterbrush. [link] You will never have that problem again.
A general rule with orange, and yellow, never mix it with black. Most black pigments have the slightest hint of blue which in combination with yellow or any color with yellow in it turns it this icky, unnatural green color. I know his hair doesn't seem green but if you used a dark brown the red would help more than the evil pigments in black. Experiment with that. I think you'll like it.
Other than these few things your sharp lines need some work. I noticed how in addition to the contrast aspect of things, you used black to try to fix this! Well SLKHTKEHR. Cheater. The only reason I could never get sharp lines was because my brush was either too wet or too dry, so again the waterbrush will fix that.
Your overall drawing is great. You can tell who it is with no difficulty, the composition is great, and you stuck with a nice complementary color scheme. You know you earn 100 cool points just for the subject matter, but I like it regardless of who the handsome fellow in the painting is. e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/b… " width="15" height="15" alt="
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I hope you realize this means the world to me, as I adore your art more than any artist's in my six deviantYEARS, and watercolor is something I really wish to succeed at but have absolutely no knowledge in - I just kind of throw it on the page and see what happens (I really should read something about it).
So some of your critique confused me due to my complete lack of any training in painting. So I should just specify (although I don't know if you realized or not) that the gel wasn't mixed with the paint at all - It was added after for extra shiny, which looks kind of fun in person, not so much in the scan. The only notable area where the gel was is the eyes (which gave it a weird effect that I find somewhat fun) and wherever you see black specks is actually a gel medium I own that's called something like black lava gel, it has flecks of shiny lava rock or something. Again, not very fun in the scan.
Even without my training I know mixing watercolor paint and gel is a no-no
I probably have a problem with this transitioning. I feel stupid because I'm not 100% sure what that means 
I'm working on something that means a lot to me right now, I bought a board of Arches watercolor paper (whichever press makes the satin-smooth finish, I forget the technical terms and even then know the french terms more 
Also, (sorry for the textwall), but I was feeling fun and inspired by your stuff so I bought myself a palette very similar to yours and identical to one I have already (I realized they are the same except mine has more tiny wells) and I filled all the wells with watercolor and I'm letting them dry. Because I wanted to be like you 
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There are gel mediums that are meant to dilute the consistency of paint without diluting the color so I wus confused. But shiny stuff is always nice.
What kind of water brushes do you already have? I know there are some that don't really work because you can't regulate when and if the water comes out, but if you have any of the brands with a thin plastic body, you should be able to squeeze and get water whenever you need it.
If you're doing a really nice piece you may want to paint your picture before putting ink on it. Black ink shows through and I always paint after for little things, but most tube watercolors are opaque with yellows and reds (not so much blues but maybe my blues just suck ass. I bought some new ones today).
When your paints dry will you tell me if your blue is dry? I bought three different kinds of each primary color today and put them in a mint tin. I'm curious if only my cobalt blue wont dry or if its all blues... It dries but stays sticky and moist. In the palette I made a few months ago(the one in my photo) it still sticks to your finger and stretches if you press to hard. It makes me sad. D:
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Ooh okay. Yeah, I believe these can be mixed with paints for that effect (I mix them with paint for the purpose of costume making).
I have a Bienfang waterbrush that I can't figure out how to efficiently get water in or out of, and a Letraset Tria water brush that I am about to try out as it's been a while and I forget what the result was.
The Letraset one seems to work fine, I probably just didn't know what I was doing with it (I think I filled it with ink the first time because it came with markers and that confused me...) but in either marker case, they're brand new and the tips aren't as nicely pointed as the one I just bought that you showed me. They both have the squeezy plastic bodies.
Really? I've gotten into the habit of painting after My fear is that the watercolor will either blend with my pencil doodle and get murky, or even worse, I won't be able to erase the pencil from under the paint
They have been drying for two days and overall some have pretty much dried but it's about fifty fifty, many are sticky. Out of the four blues I put, the two lightest ones have dried pretty completely and aren't sticky, whereas the two darkest (Reeves' Phthalo Blue and Pentel's Colbalt) are still fairly sticky, especially Colbalt actually.
I hope it dries, I recall your complaint. Is there any benefit you find to having them dried, or is it all in the convenience/lack of having tubes everywhere?
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I mostly just like pan watercolors best, but they're expensive as you can't really purchase individual colors for a fair price. Pan watercolors always last me eons longer than tube watercolors. It's too tempting to pick up too much paint with tube watercolors. I only use them for huge huge things where I need consistent color, and that's really really rare. I also like that I can walk around with them in my pocket. With your leftover paints, get a mint tin and squeeze some out. They're on the go and the same as the one you have at home. I only keep primaries now, because mixing with the waterbrush is easy.
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I just have a huge variety of watercolors because when my grandmother died I got all her paints. And yeah, I figured the same thing - I definitely use too much from the tube and waste a lot.
I'm very confused as to how the waterbrush will help me but I'm excited to find out how 
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Don't squeeze too hard or it'll drool.
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That happened when I put ink in it and I was sad. Do you use it for all your paintbrush needs or is it for certain circumstances?
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I only use it for watercolor. I also got a little portable brush cleaner because red pigments like hanging out on synthetic fibers even if they dont show up in the water.
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I meant more, for all your watercolor work.
Can you direct me in the form of a link to such a thing? Brush cleaner baffles me, but I've wanted it for a long time.
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Ziggy!
I fell in love with David Bowie sometime after watching Labyrinth, I love him
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Again, the gel medium is not mixed with the watercolor, that would be ridiculous. In real life, it makes a notable, fun difference, as it's a glossy gel. This is pretty old shit, the watercolor I just posted is a glorious triumph, this was one of my first.
Either way, I wouldn't really darken the background more.
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That means a lot! Thank you!
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No worries!
Also, thumbs up Bowie
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Oh god, I loves it. Ziggy Stardust forever.
The colors are fantastic, very nicely done. He looks great.
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Thank you! And yes, Ziggy
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Sure thing, it's my pleasure.
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Trying to decide which I like more, David Bowie or Watercolors. Hmm... At any rate, great job on this.
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I love this, Nicole
I love the blue along with the orange, and his hair is painted so nicely..
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I've been listening to a lot of David Bowie music lately, this is awesome.
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