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Sori-Eminia — Lady of the Koi
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#watercolour #girlprofile
Published: 2019-10-16 22:31:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 335; Favourites: 36; Downloads: 0
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Description
My first watercolour painting!! I'm really happy with how this turned out - the medium's growing on me!Related content
Comments: 17
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Thank you so much for all your feedback! Agreed, a scanner would be preferably, but unfortunately, I don't have a scanner available to me. I didn't even notice the yellow, thank you for pointing that out! I'll keep in mind to do a bit of digital color-correction in the future to make sure the upload matches the original.
Yeah, I realised after this piece that not using watercolour paper for a watercolour painting is rather silly, so I'm using watercolour paper now. I certainly wish I'd known that before this piece, but what's done is done. Your comment has made me realize that a huge weakness of mine is simply drawing/painting whatever "looks cool" instead of having a story behind the piece or trying to make it convey an idea. I'll try to work on that in my future pieces! And of course add more detail - I'm not happy with how plain this piece looks, either.
No, I didn't know about those two methods of drying at all! I just let all my pieces air-dry, I don't own a hair-dryer, so I'm not sure how I could purposefully implement those drying techniques in my future works, but I'll keep that information in mind if I do ever acquire a hair-dryer.
I didn't have masking fluid at the time, hence the white pen, but now that I do have (and use) masking fluid, I can definitely tell that preserving the white of the paper looks infinitely better than painting white on top. Agreed, a flat wash for the hair would have worked better. I don't have India ink, but I'll make sure to get some and try it - thanks for the tip! And yeah, ears are a huge drawing insecurity for me, haha I'm working on ears now, though, and that's what counts! The very tip of the chin is definitely too sharp for a piece focused on organic curves like this.
The fish were the first thing I painted, and I was quite mad at myself later on for not making them orange, first of all because koi fish are not blue and second because of low colour contrast. Once I made the fish blue and the face, well, a flesh colour, I struggled so hard to pick a colour for the water because I knew either the fish or the face would blend in, and even the green-yellow here doesn't cut it. That's actually why I do digital mock-ups for all my watercolour works now, so I can plan my colours and values out before going in with paint, so I don't run into issues like this. Agreed, making the fish darker would've been a great way to up the contrast if I were using a thicker paper that could handle the extra paint. At least I've learned from my myriad mistakes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Again, thank you so much for all the help! I learned so much from your comment, and I'm really grateful you took the time to review my work so thoroughly! Have a great day!
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Ooh, a thumbnail and blotting out the paint sound like great ideas! I'll make sure to try humidifying the paper sometime, too, if I'm able to. Thanks for all your help! ❤
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Hello there, I am from ProjectComment and I'm here to give out a constructive comment!
First of all, after reading your description on this that this is your first ever watercolor painting- is just wow. Knowing that watercolor is one of the hardest traditional mediums to master because of its unpredictable nature with water. But seeing this, it looks like you've practiced watercolor more than once because the colors are very organized and presented well.
The girl's skin is very well painted, and she looks beautiful. The shadings were applied nicely which defines the contours of the subject. I noticed that there's a smudge on her eye/eyelash. It has the tendency to look like it's not a mistake since it fits surprisingly well- a happy mistake (if it was a mistake).
The fish look very cute and they were done very well. I love their big flowy fins and their gradients are nice. It's just, they don't look like koi fish. But that is totally fine, it is your artistic freedom. Maybe you can check out fighting fish/beta fish, they have longer, and more flowy and beautiful fins.
You did very well on your first time, but of course, there will always be room for improvement. I see the aspects were you kind of struggled with controlling the color or balancing it. This is visible on the girl's hair and the background. I can't really say any suggestions except for more practice. But with the background, maybe use the wash effect (maybe you're also aware of this already) so that the different colors will mix well and be more cohesive with each other.
Good job on your first ever watercolor painting! You did great! Keep up the good work, and maybe you'll be able to master watercolor one day c;
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Thanks for taking the time to write such a thought-out reply! And thank you for the compliments
I think I got betta fish and flying fish mixed up, and somehow equated the resulting creature to koi fish Yes, betta fish are absolutely gorgeous!! Especially the multicoloured ones ❤
I did want to do a wash for the background, except that I'd stupidly decided to use sketch paper instead of watercolor paper, and I knew that if I put enough water for a wash, the paper would disintegrate. Even with the low amount of water I used for the background here, the paper became horribly wrinkly and is now slightly torn. That's what I get for using the wrong supplies, haha
The bleeding around the hair and the edge of the eye were mistakes, but like you said, there are worse mistakes I could've made that could've ruined the piece. Thankfully, these two weren't so bad.
Thanks again for the thought-out response! I hugely appreciate all your feedback
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You're very welcome and I'm glad to help! It's a shame that you didn't get to use watercolor paper, or else the piece could have been better than it already is <3 Good job and keep improving~
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Thank you! I love the look of Oriental art, but I only know how to draw Western-style faces, so this blend is the result. I do hope to be able to draw proper Oriental art one day ^^
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Wow... It looks pretty, especially the lady's face. 
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OOOHH MY GOODNESS!! YOUR KOI FISH TURNED OUT SO PRETTY?????? LIKE GURRRRLLLLL~~~~~ 🐟🐟🐟
also because you gave me permission: 🦀
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Thank you!! I had a lot of fun with the fins (you know me and flowy things )
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