Watercolors 5 and 6

I'm still finding watercolors puzzling, to say the least, but I continue to learn, so that's a good thing. I also continue to find copying a variety of other artists and styles to be a worthwhile endeavor.

The two shown below were painted this evening over the course of about an hour, sitting at the kitchen table and chatting with Amp and Grace. The ink drawings were done a week of more ago for the lighthouse, and earlier today for the castle.

The first (watercolor #5) is a heavy-handed ink and wash sketch of the iconic Eilean Donan castle in Scotland. I see this as more of a fail than not, since the first thing I did was the sky, and that went pretty badly off the rails. Discouragement set in and I kinda moped through the rest of this. I want to do this one again.

Eilean Donan castle, Scotland (after Lois Davidson)

The second (watercolor #6) is another lighthouse sketch, copying directly from a Peter Sheeler work. I love these lighthouses. I like how this one came out. Not without issues, but not bad over all.

Lighthouse (after Peter Sheeler)

One thing of note is that the lighthouse was painted on 90 pound Artist's Loft watercolor paper that warps like a potato chip. The castle was the first I have painted on my new stash of Strathmore 140 pound watercolor paper. The heavier paper curled just a little, but performed much better overall.

Tomorrow I have an new acrylic painting sketched out that I want to get started.