One Month Watercolor Art Challenge!!!

Hey ho~!!!

Finally, I'm back because I have made some art again! But it's not digital art. :)

Watercolor isn't my usual art medium but I wanted to try a different one to challenge myself as well as to prepare on getting back to art again. Also, Leann gifted me a handmade watercolor book which inspired me to try watercolor.

I prefered to do traditional art first to get back to art because I felt lazy switching on my turtle laptop. I need to replace it next. I also still haven't used much of the Clip Studio app in my tablet because I need to activate the free license, which means I need to alot time using it to maximize the free offer because it will only be available for a few months. I have to subscribe after that. (This watercolor challenge was done in February, and as of writing this post I have already done a few digital art. Yay!)

Of course, Leann's watercolor book is special that's why I didn't use it yet! Lol. I still have a pack of watercolor paper so that's what I used for this challenge. And as a thrifty and space-conscious artist, I went for smaller canvas and made a little twist to it.

Watercolor art in polaroid style!

I cut the watercolor paper in 2'' x 3'' size. I guess smaller canvas is better when you're making lots of art because you can save more watercolor paper and finish the artwork faster.

The challenge was to make watercolor art in a month but it doesn't mean I need to make one everyday. With other stuff on my plate, I had to be lenient. So whatever I can accomplish in a month is alright, I just want to see if I would have an improvement.

In a span of one month, I was able to make 23 watercolor artworks ranging from various subjects. That's a great job for a lazy artist like me! Congrats, Takyarts! 🏆✨️

The watercolor I used is Prang and the brush I used was the stock Prang brush which came with the watercolor. It's difficult to use for smaller details so I have to be extra careful when doing smaller details.

Now let's see the artworks I did for this challenge!

These two were the first watercolor art I did for the challenge. I did it on my birthday while waiting for my foods to be delivered. I remember being so happy and proud that I was able to draw and paint on such small canvas. It looked so cute from my perspective.

_{(1st row from left to right: hbd, level up day, jigglypuff, daisy, LiSA)
(2nd row from left to right: sakura, macaron, frog, gumamela, sunflower)}

Few days later, I drew Jigglypuff. I struggled blending colors here, even by simply adding shadows. Lol. My brush was too wet so the colors bled.

And speaking of blending colors, I experimented on the background of my daisy painting. The artwork and the background colors were inspired from my old classmate's band. Colors bled on some of the edges though so I have to fix it with white gel pen. Yikes!

Next to the daisy drawing was a fan art of LiSA. I challenged myself to make a portrait too. I didn't like the result that much but at least I've tried!. I think the white gel pen I used to recreate the highlights ruined the artwork.

Of course, one flower artwork isn't enough! I made a few more like sakura, gumamela, and sunflower! I love all of it but painting the details..hmmm.. not so much! Lol.

I also painted foods like the Vizco's strawberry macaron. The real strawberry macaron looked pretty and I'm sad it looked rotten in my drawing. Aaagghh! I swear, Vizco's macaron was delicious though!

And since this challenge ran from February to March, I felt it was necessary to make a leap year art. Voila! A ballerina princess frog!

_{(1st row from left to right: LiSA, lollipop, Son Goku, halo-halo, Taka)
(2nd row from left to right: eyes (inked), Y.K.C., pizza, blue (pencil), rage(red/blue))}

I wasn't satisfied with my first LiSA portrait so I made another one. Heck, I messed up again. Colors looked dirty especially on the nose area. Colors didn't blend properly. But hey, my drawing looked more like LiSA this time compared to the first one.

I also tried to draw an inverted smiley lollipop! Not happy with how it turned out! I wanted to try creating the translucent texture of the lollipop but I failed.

And to appreciate Akira Toriyama's work, I drew Son Goku doing my favorite Dragon Ball Z move. Teleportation. Finally, I got to draw an anime character again after a long time!

On the other hand, I'm satisfied with my halo-halo and creamy spinach dip pizza. I enjoyed painted these two. I just ordered this pizza two weeks ago and it's still my favorite pizza. :)

Of course, I don't want to limit myself by only drawing a female portrait. I tried painting Taka (last painting on first row) but damn it didn't look like him. Haha! Sorry, Taka. And making shadows to black color was difficult. The only part I liked here was the apron. The other fan art portrait I did was Y.K.C. (second photo on second row). I think this was the most decent portrait out of all the portraits on this challenge. I drew him a bit thin though.

For the last three paintings, I tried to experiment on different styles: ink, pencil, and red/blue color contrast. I liked the inked one the most. It was fun drawing wavy lines. I didn't like much the other two paintings. I think I messed up on the pencil style and red/blue contrast. Promise, they looked cool inside my head. They just didn't turn out how I imagined them to be.

For the finale of the challenge, I also did paintings on a bigger canvas, 4.5'' x 6''. (Because drawing on smaller canvas limited me to do detailed drawings.)

The first artwork I drew was this half-naked lady in front of a mirror. My main purpose for this piece was to draw tattoo. Doing the tattoo details was exhausting but the result was worth it. I finally got to use the white watercolor for the white streaks (reflection) on the mirror.

For the second artwork, I painted the next version of Chubblebum with its trainer. Chubblebum is a character I created for the Pokemon character challenge of ArtPark few years ago. I got dizzy painting the fur. But to be fair, I wasn't feeling okay when I did this piece. I wasn't satisfied with the outcome, maybe I can do justice with a digital version.

And for my last entry, I painted a portrait I found on Pinterest. I was looking for a reference with colorful and interesting pose but I thought it was difficult to paint so I ended up with a simple portrait which turns out to be a photo of Komatsu Nana, a Japanese celebrity. It was her smile that made me chose her photo as my reference. I loved how this turned out even though it was simple!

Doing this challenge was like a breath of fresh air even though I felt frustrated a couple of times doing the tiny details and especially on blending colors!

I wish I can do this again someday. Did I have any improvement in a span of one month? Hmm.. I still can't say I had improved because I'm still confused how to blend colors. But I really enjoyed painting!

I used Canson (200 gsm) watercolor paper, by the way. I almost forgot to mention!

And I also forgot to mention something interesting while I was painting...

A mosquito flew over and rested ontne watercolor case. I observed it and found out that it was drinking on the colors I have mixed. Maybe it thought it was coffee. Lol.

Here are some of my WIPs for the watercolor challenge:

Tools I used for this challenge were Sakura Pigma Micron 0.1 & 0.3 Black, Sakura Pigma Micron 0.1 Sepia, Sakura Gelly Roll White, Canson 200 gsm watercolor paper, and Prang watercolor.

The watercolor challenge was fun but I think I still prefer digital simply because it's less messy and requires less space. But I'm definitely making other watercolor artworks in the future! ^_^

Thanks for dropping by!