Before you even touch the brush...

Preparing for a new Painting

"The process of Painting actually starts way before you even touch the Brush..."

Watercolor Painting is not just a process of working with colors and water on the paper. As I heard, when Tom started the workshop by saying- the actual process of painting starts way before you even touch the brush.

The thought process of what to paint is the first step of a painting. Picking the subject, looking for a source of inspiration, selecting the aspect of inspiration, adding your own imagination to it before you even start sketching is all the initial process of painting.

Sketching is the next step in the process. Sketching is nothing but a quick study of the subject, studying the values, composition, tones (light, mid, dark), etc. Some Artists even do a sketch and keep it as a reference throughout the process of painting. For experienced Artists, this becomes an optional and they skip it usually.

Then comes the selection of paper, choosing the right type of paper, the right size and doing an actual sketch on the paper which is usually done with a pencil.

Once the sketch is done, it is important to stretch the paper. There are many ways Artists do this. I tried few ways of doing it by reading books, watching videos, asking friends who do watercolor painting. I finally settled on simply taping the paper, all four sides to a hardboard with just a masking tape. Stretching the Paper is the most fun step for me that pulls me into the actual step of painting. Once I am up to this step, then I can almost say I will finish my painting in next few hours.

Next comes the process of preparing the palette, cleaning previous painting mess if still left, adding more colors from the tubes if needed, wetting colors and choosing and preparing main colors to use. Some Artists use masking fluid, sea salt, sponge, cling paper etc. for getting some effects which otherwise would be just hard to get. I tried all these techniques, but lately I am not using any of these. My paper is my masking fluid, my brushes and just a paper napkin, water in two small jars, and a water spray bottle...are all the things that I need.

Once I am done with all this preparation, I just turn on my favorite music on my phone. That takes me away into the world of painting. With few breaks during this fun, I come to a stopping point to call it done.

The last thing and the most enjoyable step is- signing. This is the proud moment during the entire process of painting. When I step back and take a look at the signed and finished (at least stopped if not finished, a painting is never finished anyway) painting, that brings the true inner happiness out with a feeling of "Yes, I did it!"

Keep Painting, it's en-joy-fully fun ;)