Lovebirds

Watercolor drawing of lovebirds

I began this drawing with excitement; I received a Christmas gift of 48 watercolor pencils! As soon as I started using the new pencils, I ran into difficulties. I wanted to make a color chart, but each pencil had the same number on it – no name. Abandoning the chart, I began work on the lovebirds drawing, imagining it would be soft and romantic.

“I seem to be going to a lot of trouble making marks without much result,” I wrote in my art journal. “The picture so far is very light and adding water didn’t make the colors brighter or darker.” Comparing new to old pencils, I discovered that the Aquarelle brand (the new ones) are harder “lead.” I like the softness and relative brightness of the Derwent brand. I used the Derwent pencils to brighten up the bodies of the birds.

“Adding ink around the outside of the birds left them looking oddly blank. So I started adding more lines, hoping it would look like feathers. While I like the quality of my scrumbly lines, I don’t like the way the ‘feathers’ worked.”

The result is not exactly romantic. This was definitely an exercise in forgiveness!

Skills

Posted on

February 1, 2017

2 Comments

  1. Jude

    it’s so funny that often the issues we have in creating something have no bearing on how our creation is received. before i read your creative process all i felt and saw when i looked at the picture was Love. I don’t even remember reading they were love birds. and even after reading about your process and the difficulties you met all i see in the lines and colours is love. i shall remember that when I am having issues creating.

    Reply
    • Kate

      Thanks Jude. I like posting the process behind the art so that other creatives can (possibly) feel kinship. Making art teaches me about life – it’s worth the difficulties to get to the final creation.

      Reply

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