Experiments with Watercolor... and Why Two (or More!) Mediums are Sometimes Better Than One

I have been so busy this summer working all day and doing my classes at night and on the weekends, so I have not been keeping up my blog like I usually do. It was a great semester, though, and I just got my final grades: A in both classes! Yeahoo!

Here are some of the assignments that I did in my Watercolor for Illustrators class this semester. It was a really great class. I learned so many cool watercolor and mixed-media techniques that I am really excited to continue experimenting with in the future.

Watercolor with white pastel pencil:

Watercolor with white gouache and black ink:

 Watercolor with white goauche:

Watercolor with watercolor pencil and black ink:

Watercolor with colored pencil:

Lesson Learned: Try different ways of using watercolor and combining it with different media for a variety of textures, moods, and styles. I learned in this class that watercolor is the most versatile artistic medium out there. It can be combined with almost any other medium to create different textures and effects. Applying the paint to different surfaces, with different brushes or sponges, and layering different wet or dry media on top or underneath the watercolor can result in so many interesting effects. I learned this semester to test different techniques on scraps of paper and to take risks by trying out new mixed media combinations that I had never tried before. You never know what result you might get until you give it a try!