Hello everyone!

I’ve released a new video, hurrah!

I checked, and the last time I posted a video was in March… and it’s late December now! But I should be back on track. I’ve previously set ‘upload goals’ for myself, such as once a week, but this time I’m going to take it easy and try to get least get one video out a month. I know that if I jumped right into once a week again, I’d probably burn out. Plus, I’m still learning the best way to manage all my responsibilities, so this is a great way to ease into everything. This blog post got pushed back a bit due to my birthday and Christmas, but it is still December, so it still counts. :P

Now, on to the art!

To be honest, I struggled with this piece. I had setup my drawing area for recording, and pencilled then lined my drawing with fineliner. Everything was going well! I decided that I wanted to test out my watercolour pencils on the drawing. I was really pleased with how the linework turned out but I was nervous that I would screw it up with the watercolours! I’m very new to using them. 

There was about a month in between when I coloured the background and started using the watercolour pencils to colour in the girl. It was a mixture of feeling rusty in recording videos and a fear of using something new, stirred with a generous portion of too much other things that needed doing.

The background was made with the dried pan kind of watercolours. It was just a cheap paint set that you can get from a grocery store for kids. I also used those watercolours to do some touch ups after I had finished using the watercolour pencils.

The watercolour pencils weren’t the expensive kind either, just a Faber-Castell box of 24 watercolour pencils. They’re good, but I would have tried to get an even cheaper kind if I had found any. I went to a trip to the art store for that one.

What was the reason for using cheap art supplies?

I’m just learning! I am a complete beginner to watercolours, and especially watercolour pencils. I don’t want to worry about wasting or ruining expensive art supplies. It really takes the pressure off and let’s me experiment! I can always upgrade my supplies once I feel more confident.

If I’m trying out a new medium, I do prefer to start out with cheaper supplies until I get the hang of it. I just try to be aware of what the difference is between the different qualities. With the watercolours, for example, I knew that with a higher quality art supply I could get richer pigments out of the paints. I was also told by the art supply store attendant that the watercolour pencils of the more expensive variety are often a bit smoother and nicer to use as well. But, the fundamental techniques to using them would remain the same, so the cheaper products fit what I needed.

After all, you don’t want to spend a lot of money on a fancy watercolour set only to find out that you really hate watercolours. But so far I seem to be enjoying my early experiments!

Please let me know if you liked the video! I’m still figuring out the best way to edit them, even after all this time. So any feedback really helps! I was thinking that I might start uploading a second version of my art videos, longer ones that are (or close to) real time. That way people can choose if they want to see the general process of it sped up, or if they want to see in detail of how the art was made.

I’m curious though.. If you’re the artist type, let me know if you prefer to use a cheaper version of an art medium before going into the expensive stuff, if you dive right in, or if you try to go somewhere in the middle? :D 

Thanks for reading!

~ Elise