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Charlene-Art — Let the Rain Draft
#painting #rain #rainbow #splash #water #watercolour
Published: 2018-09-27 14:45:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 440; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 0
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Description
Watercolour paints are a cruel and harsh mistress. I wish there was a magic undo button sometimes.Some things I would do differently the second time around:
1. Probably splatter the background first so I don't have to worry about going around the figure.
2. For the water dripping around her face I guess I would use some more darker shades of the purples and perhaps the reds instead of diving into blues and greens.
3. Shift the face to the centre so the composition is more balanced.
4. For the wet hair maybe I wouldn't use green next time. Maybe darker shades of the reds, purples and blues? Not sure. If anyone has constructive criticism on how to draw or paint wet hair, or colour composition when it comes to rainbow watercolour pieces please let me know. Thoughts on the watercolour splats and background are also appreciated.
Reference for this piece was the wonderful Reine-Haru www.deviantart.com/reine-haru/…
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Comments: 31
Hello!! We meet again From the ProjectComment
1. You can sort of cut the paper of her silhouette and place it on top of her, so that the splatter don't get in the are you did not want them to. I still think you should not splatter first, for it might leave the unwanted marks like on the face area and such. Where the colors are not thick enough to covers it. I have used the cutting paper method several times and its works wonders. Another choice is masking fluid. Pretty awesome and handy, especially to the small area but it is a bit expensive... (In my country at least) Also I really like that your splatter are not so random, they are done in a direction, towards the character. Lovely details.
2. Yeah, others colors apart from green might be cool. Right now its looks a bit confusing for me. It seems like the dripping water and the hair are the same part somehow. To me it look like those dripping are forming and creating hairs. Which can be cool too.
3. I prefer the center position more for you got a really nice pale yellow on the top left, it look just like a light source, which is really lovely. If you put her in the center, the light would not be this strong. So this is nice already for me.
4. My alternative colors choice was gray. Starting of with her painted in gray-scale. Then you got the nice, rainbow splatting on her. And part that the rainbow dripped on her slowly dye her, gives colors to her. Almost like she is coming to life under this rainbow rain. Would create a nice story in to it too. But green also looks lovely.
The way you use yellow and purple as light and shadow are really nice too!
For me the colors composition are perfect already, great vibes. My gray one that I suggest would give of totally a different vibes.
And yes, I totally wish for the Ctrl+z in real life. Many times when I did traditional painting, I somehow reach for the Ctrl+z button that does not exist....
Hope this helps! Much love!
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Well I tried to redo it. Here is the new version if you're interested:
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Hullo again!
1. Thanks the cutout sounds like a cool plan. I might try that one.
2. Yeah I realised after a while the water and the hair shouldn't be the same colour but by then it was too late
4. Grey sounds like a lovely concept! But for me this is part of a rainbow theme I'm doing. Some other parts to this series are:
- so I wish to keep to rainbow colours. But it sounds like a cool concept for next time for something else.
Thanks for the critique!
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Hey, I'm from ProjectComment
First of all, I love this piece. The use of color is wonderful. The greens, yellows, and purples all complement each other so well. The proportions are all well done and neatly defined, which is tough to do with watercolor. Her ear is a little off though. If you look at the lower part of her ear, it doesn't quite look connected to her jawline. The background is well made and I like how you used certain colors to amplify the light. The shading and lighting are perfect. You did a great job at giving her face form. The water on her face is a nice touch, but I wish there was more of it. It seems a bit too focused in one spot. If the water was spread out a bit more with some more droplets here and there, I think it would capture the idea of being out in the rain a bit more. I especially love how you did the hair, but I agree that a different color would probably be better. It's a bit bright and kind of distracting, but the way it falls around her face is well done. Overall, this is a great work of art and I look forward to seeing what you do in the future. Hope this helps.
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Well I tried to redo it. Here is the new version if you're interested:
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Ah yes. In the next rendition there will definitely be more water - but I decided to stop and give up on this one when I realised the colours were too dark and looked like the hair. Thanks for your critique!
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Your self-critique is pretty much stuff I would have said lol
Yes, watercolor is a different beast and it takes a certain level of practice, patience, and willingness to let go of some control to master it. It's annoying haha
Disclaimer: My critiques tend to stem from personal preferences which isnt entirely fair or objective, but honestly I have no other way that's effective.
Things that I appreciate:
+That you showed the light source in the bg splatters with color placement. That's really cool!
+Excellent understanding of the face and structural anatomy! Upper lip doesn't seem finished though.
+Speaking of, extra kudos on the nose
+Even though you critique yourself on the hair, I was able to read it as wet hair. That being said, wet hair tends to be thick, clingy, and heavy, so the thick lines you used was a good move.
Things that may be different if done again:
+Like you said, the hair color. I'd have used green as backlighting or as the color in between light and shadow. The hair color could have been purple or blue like you said, or maybe a dark magenta. Then used blue and or purple for shadows.
+Definitely would have picked a different color for the water running down her face. I know the color usage wasn't literal but the one that comes to mind is turquoise.
+Maybe, just maybe what would be cool in a second rendition is a higher contrast image. Like, really push the shadows underneath and also the lights on the front. Speaking of lighting, I noticed the yellow behind her head. If you're looking to work with spacing, make enough room so that you can use the yellow as a 'beam' that flows through the image, and maybe apply some backlighting.
Jumping off of what florajessica said, putting the subject off-center adds dynamism to the piece and if you wish to continue to utilize that by all means do!
+Using colored pencils to sharpen edges? Some do, some dont. That's literally all creator preference.
+Frisket?
I have a bunch more to say as ways to change the image (the bg, for instance), and that's not a bad thing. I tend to think of a zillion ways to do the same damn thing. If you'd like to know, I'd love to share 
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Well I tried to redo it. Here is the new version if you're interested:
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Thanks for your in depth critique!
Just a few questions:
-Regarding the upper lip how doesn't it look finished? Does it just need a few highlights to finish it?
-Ha ha thanks about the nose
-I'm wondering whether I should skip green in the next version. It's possible there are just too many colours in the stew.
-Heh heh I always associate water with blue which is why I went with the blue/green in the first place, which may have been my downfall. But I guess the reality about water is that it is transparent and is something of a reflection of the colour around it. So I think I will do maybe some darker purples and reds and maybe add a touch of blue if it needs further definition. We'll see.
-Hmm yellow is a backlight I'm intrigued by this idea. I would probably push the hair to be darker in some places but I might think about it for the other areas afterwards
- Generally I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to using each medium. For some reason even though I use acrylic, coloured pencils and watercolours I will rarely combine them into a piece unless I really feel as though it needs it. For this piece though, since the paper is slightly rough I might skip the pencils for now as the lines will have that roughness to it.
- I've used frisket before to varying degrees of success. Namely in this piece
where I used it on the girl before painting the background in. I think one of the problems is that it's a very clean cut look and you sort of have to blend that foreground into the background a bit more. Maybe I could use the frisket in a few areas like highlights in the hair.
I would love to hear your thoughts on other ideas for the background. The idea was the directional diagonal falling of rain so I would like to push that ideas a bit more. I just splattered rainbow colours on and tipped the painting on an angle to get it to fall that way but I am open to hearing suggestions to make it look a bit more like rain and such.
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--This is gonna sound stupid, but it looks... blotchy, compared to the how well the nose is defined. Yes, it's watercolor and it will be watercolor.
--You know, if it were me I'd say that too. However I think it's a better challenge to work with the same number of colors 
Here is an oil painting I did a few years ago . I uploaded it just for you
--lmao true, water technically has no color. Maybe try to make the water have multiple colors?? However that is also a little ambitious and if it were me, I'd do a mockup before doing the real thing.
--That's cool! You make stuff however you'd like. But, if you ever want to try mixed media and need a good reference for someone who does it in a way that's magical--and, I'm unbelievably jealous of this guy's talent--here is the link to his site. My favorite section is his Visual Literature section!
--I like how that image turned out, and imo it's better having the figure defined separate from the bg. Also, those goldfish came out really good!
--I learned from one of my distant relatives last weekend of a technique for pretty bg's with watercolor. You may or may not know of this already but:
Dunk the entire sheet of paper into water then lay it out. Then drop/dab colors onto the sheet and watch the colors bleed together. I've never tried it myself (or havent had the chance to--I was told this last weekend lmao), but maybe you can give it a hot? Test it out on a small scrap or something?
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- Ah I see. Well hopefully I'll render it better in the second version. I think I was also thinking of shadows when I did it but maybe I just need to blend it better.
- This painting looks pretty desaturated. Maybe I could do green as a backlighting but we'll see.
- Wow this guy is great! Very uniquely textured work!
- Awe thanks
- Hmm that sounds potentially nice. I'm not sure how the dunking the water might work with the frisket but I guess a test run is a worthy idea.
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Oh, yeah you wouldnt use frisket lol
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This is an impressive watercolor, and I think the composition of the piece is already well balanced. Something I've learned in the art classes I've taken is to keep things off-center. it adds more interest to the piece. The colors are very vibrant, and I like the emotion they convey. I don't think the green for the hair is bad, although I do think a few of the strands could use more definition (maybe adding a darker blue around the strands to add a little more shadow.
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Well I tried to redo it. Here is the new version if you're interested:
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As everyone else has said by now, the improvements on this is great. The contrast of values and colors is beautiful. Great job
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Yeah I've learned that off balance principle in books in art classes as well but I think with this piece she could still use a bit of negative space behind the back of her head in this particular piece. Not necessarily fully centring her head but a bit more space.
Thanks! Heh heh I may have given up on the hair at that point because I kind of knew I ruined the piece with the darkness of the rain drops on her face. I just sorta continued it to test out these ideas towards the end to test ideas and the background to see if the rest would work or not.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
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This is absolutely stunning, my friend! I could never do that as I've never learned how to do water coloring before. I took art class in 12th grade, but we never learned water coloring at all, but that's because I was in Art 1 for senior year, seeing as Spanish 3 stressed me out so badly, I almost died the night before the test we had to take.
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Awe thank you!
Watercolours are a hard mistress. You can't just cover up your mistakes with more paint 
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Alright
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