It seems that with the few tutorials that I have seen on Youtube and such, that the painter is showing you how to do something that they know how to do well.  A few whisks of the brush and a seaside English town appears. That’s great but here, I am mostly showing you that I have little idea what I am doing and just sort of making it all up as I go along, trying new things and experimenting. Sometimes it’s a mess. Think of it as another way of learning.

The goal for me is to learn each time and to try things that I have NO idea how to do. I make mistakes so you don’t have to and all that.

Here, the idea was that I was going to practice water ripples some more. I have done a few with turtles but…eh… not feeling it right now but I want to keep playing with Daniel Smith Mayan Blue – and it goes so well with siennas… so I think… Koi. Koi pond. Ripples. Water lilies with koi half seen. Flashes of gold and orange in the green/blue waters.

I went on unsplash.com and found some lily pads. And some photos of koi.

Worked out a composition in pencil and started to mask out the pads and koi. Did that and realized that ripples might make it WAY too busy. Yes, I know that was the goal of this painting but… you never know, right?

Anyway, mask dry and I go in with Mayan Blue, Cerulean and my favorite Terre Verte.

I really can’t usually do a nice flat even wash to save my life, but then again, I don’t usually like a nice, flat even wash or maybe I might practice it some.

That said, I love how Mayan Blue and cerulean granulate so I was floating in the colors into puddles of water and swirling things around. At one point, I got a clump of undiluted Mayan stuck to the brush which made the area much darker – so I just went with it.

Then in the “open” space, I started just dabbing in color hoping it would spread and granulate.

Then I left it to dry.

I was shocked the next morning to see that some of the “clumps” looked like ripples and I could just use a Q-tip to lift some pigment…

Happy accidents R us…

Here’s how it all granulates.

Removing the mask and starting to paint the pads… and I realize I have no clue what I am doing!

No matter which greens I use, they look really dull.

But I finish them off, smooth those jagged edges, mask some scales on the koi and start building up color.

I do kinda like the ripples but at this stage, I come to the conclusion that this is going to make for good scrap paper.

Know when to hold them – know when to fold them.

Materials Used

#commission earned

All Daniel Smith
Mayan Blue
Cerulean Blue
Terre Verte
Jadeite
Transparent Yellow Oxide
Aussie Red Gold
Perylene Green
Hooker’s Green
Burgundy Yellow Ochre (tones down the greens)

Fine Line Masking Fluid

Arches 300lb Watercolor paper


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