5 Key Steps To Improve Your Watercolor Painting Skills
In this material, we are sharing a few simple and effective secrets used by Taiwanese watercolorist Yu-Jie Cai. It will help you to draw a human in watercolor sketching technique in particular and to improve your skills in watercolor painting in general. Enjoy!
- An important role in the depiction of a human figure in the movement is played by the artist’s skill of observing. The easiest way to train this skill is to watch passers-by. You can go outside or just look out the window and make a quick sketch using liner.
- The artist advises to do a quick sketch according to the pattern: hair => face => clothes (from top to bottom, from left to right, if you are right-handed, and vice versa, if left-handed) => legs => hands => details (print on clothes, hairstyle, etc.).
3. To give the sketch a dynamic, do not make the legs of the character the same length. If the clothing has a print (for example, a stripe), it is also shall be drawn in an arc rather than a line.
4. After a quick sketch with the liner, start adding color, starting with clothing. Color also plays an important role in the dynamic image. For example, shadows can be transmitted by adding a darker shade over a lighter shade, and the play of light is represented by shades of different saturation or mixing of similar shades (e.g., blue and purple). After drying the layer, add color to the clothes, and at the very end, cover open areas of the body.
5. And most importantly, don’t try to paint the characters in detail. It is more important to convey the dynamic and the mood, so you are free to play with proportions, perspective, and shades!
