Watercolour Project 4

Yesterday I completed the fourth in my series of ten watercolour projects from the book "Step-By-Step Guide to Painting Realistic Watercolors" and once again I feel that I have made some important steps forward. I am not, however, sufficiently satisfied with this image to move on without repeating the work.

The rose does not look sufficiently three-dimensional to me. This may be because I have not found the correct values, and could be the result of the rather "paint-by-numbers" approach I took to the painting (by which I mean that I copied the books instructions and believed that would be sufficient to complete the picture).

The wine looks very patchy, not at all evenly coloured in the glass. In part this was because I was trying to carefully paint around the reflections, and I think it dried out at different rates - next time I will try to paint out the reflections with latex, which might allow me to work a little faster. As well, the wine does not convey the curve of the glass, and I think a little improved contouring is in order.

There was a lot of fine detail which I was not able to achieve, at first I tried to use the very tip of the brush with little paint to draw the detail, but I found that the paint dried too fast, and spoiled the effect. Then I tried to work faster, with more paint, but it seems to me that the surface tension of the water limited the amount of detail I could achieve - perhaps a little ox gall would help to lower the surface tension.

So many things to try! Interestingly, the scan I made of the picture which you see here (you can see a larger image by clicking on the picture) does not show up these errors as they appear in the original watercolour. (230 x 305, Fabriano Acquarello 300 gsm hot pressed watercolour paper, Winsor Newton Artist's Watercolour, 21.10.07)