Hi there!

Another great class and very actual too! I couldn't just pass by, since creating speed is something I'm constantly struggling with :) Normally it takes me at least few days (omg, sometimes even weeks!) to finish single project. My main issue is inbuilt perfectionism, combined with extremely detailed painting style. Nowadays I'm trying to push myself outside of the comfort zone and create less detailed, multi-layered and "all-over-the-place complicated" paintings. Plus I've got new watercolor set to try, so this class was literally created for me :D

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This time I put myself a goal to finish whole project from a scratch in one go. I had no clue what to paint and spent some time scrolling through my references without much enthusiasm, unless I remembered about Dover illustration book, which is meant to be a good help for artists and illustrators. Right away I made my mind that I want to paint something more decorative rather than realistic and have chosen few illustrations to play with.

Mixed media whimsical flower - image 1 - student project

This is what I managed to combine together. My target was to simplify sketching process as much as I can, but without 100% copying.

Mixed media whimsical flower - image 2 - student project

In case if someone interested in discovering new paints and materials, I'm also including picture of the paint set I used. It was totally new before I started this class, so my additional plan was to try out new watercolours.

Mixed media whimsical flower - image 3 - student project

And here is the first watercolour layer. New paints turned out really nice and pleasant to work with. The only difference I noticed, that they tend to dry little bit darker, than how they are while applying on paper (normally it works opposite way with all other watercolours - they are getting much lighter when totally dry.) But I guess this happens because of white paint, added to colour pigment and this is why they are quite opaque as well.

Mixed media whimsical flower - image 4 - student project

After applying first watercolour layer, I felt that one more paint layer is needed, before moving towards finishing touches. This time I decided to implement more than just two material types and ended up with adding some coloured pencils, black liner and even golden paint :)

Mixed media whimsical flower - image 5 - student project

Unfortunately, golden paint doesn't look good on a scanned picture, so I just took pictures with my phone, experimenting with different lighting (but they're still quite blurred :( looks like someone is having shaky hands...).

Overall it took me one working day to finish this piece. Still a lot for one simple illustration, but for such a snail as I am, it's great progress :D Mixed media whimsical flower - image 6 - student project

Materials used:

1. Cold pressed watercolour paper, Winsor&Newton, 640 g, A4 (btw, my favourite watercolour paper)

2. Prima marketing, Watercolor Confections paint set, "Pastel dreams"

3. Faber-Castell coloured pencils

4. Art-n-Fly Fine Line Drawing Pens (this time I used 01 and 005)

5. Ami Antik Metallic + some old golden powder, I don't even know it's name :)

Julia Krasnova

Watercolour Artist & Illustrator

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