Lesson 1 from Dawn McLeod Heim’s book
I started painting designs from the book Step-by-step guide to Painting Realistic Water Colors by Dawn McLeod Heim. She details every step, the specific colors, the intensity of the puddle, how to make the puddle, how to charge one color into another, etc. It’s an eye opener and in this one painting I’ve learned quite a lot! I’ve gotten the second design sketched on my 300 lb watercolor paper — gasp! — yes she recommends using that weight, no soaking or stretching, and I’ve decided, shoot, I have three full sheets of this pricy stuff, why not use it now to exactly follow along and learn the best I can? Had to talk myself into it though, don’t you know…
The stained glass veining is cool to remove the color in the middle, keeping the edges. I learned what NOT to do to charge the leaves…so the next charging I do will be better. Somehow, in all my reading, and not systematic experimentation(!) I didn’t realize you charge the new color into the bead of the first color!
anyway, design two is a foil wrapped truffle with gorgeous charged in shadows. Watch this space!
