318 Portrait of Tom Waits



Here’s the original

I’m not fully sure what to say about this one – I keep thinking that I’m not using my watercolors “right” – they’re way too precise, and it’s as if i “write” them in stead of “draw” them (or paint them or whatever) – so i wanted to try something looser. I really prefer watercolor very loose, but it have a hard time getting good results with it.

So i tried just “attacking” without thinking too much about it.. I haven’t been that “careful” in making everything smooth and nice, and the colors and shapes are more impressions than they’re correct readings of of reference photo.. I think it’s clear that I don’t have much experience with this spontaneous approach, but on the other hand, it’s not all that bad either.I could definitely see my self continuing evolving a “looser” watercolor hand. (Why did i do the hat so big?)

Does anyone have any tips to using BLACK in watercolor? I’ve heard that many watercolor painters never use the “pure” black, but always mix colors that give a nice, dark hue that “reminds” one of black.. I think that the blacks i use do a lot of damage in my drawings and it could be nice to have an idea of other ways of approaching this.

Yup – and finally.. Everybody seems to enjoy my pencil drawings much more than my watercolors. I get that! I feel quite good each time I do a pencil drawing after a streak of watercolor, because they’re just so much nicer than what i can muster up in WC.. I do want to get better with the watercolors, though, so I’ll keep doing it, but I’ll try and fit in some pencil drawings a little more often in the future !

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