Adventures in Watercolor

Still continuing on with the watercolor lessons and this week I discovered Yupo Paper. I originally purchased the Yupo paper for work on the Doll Dreams but decided to try it out for an original watercolor painting.

Yupo is a slick, tree-free paper that is 100% waterproof. How can you paint watercolor on waterproof paper?
It's not as hard as you would think! Yupo allows you to "clean up" and correct watercolor mistakes which you can't do on traditional watercolor paper. Once dry, the glossy sheen of the paper adds another element to the painting, making the colors pop.

I've only done one painting, a self portrait of sorts since it was an image of myself in the outfit and pose that served as the idea. I originally sketched it into the Moleskine for my Sketchbook Project (OMG..due in January!) for my pages on Hyde Park in London. I then decided to sketch it in pencil on regular watercolor paper and then again on Yupo paper in ink. You'll probably see more of this image in the future as I also did one sketch on canvas to paint in acrylic and yet another to paint entirely in Photoshop and Painter XI. Maybe I'll even do one in oil! :)

Here is the one on Yupo paper:

Feed the birds, tuppance a bag

Ink & watercolor on Yupo paper

And here it is, scanned and taken into Photoshop to be "messed" with:

Here I've added a texture by Jewell to give a dreamy feel and one by Shadowhouse Creations to add some depth. In addition, I've done some more painting using one of the watercolor brushes in Photoshop. It made me long to get back to painting digitally. Remember the Phoenix? That was damn good! Or how about the Pinup I've YET to finish. But instead, I did another watercolor this week. I painted a cock! Hey now dear readers! Shame on you! Get your minds out of the gutter! :)

Until next time, creative hugs and painterly kisses!