A friend gave me this peculiar looking bottle the other day with a liquid in it that sort of looked like dirty tap water. Inside was actually a bottle of clear coffee and with my artist instincts, I decided to paint it.
There are a lot of weird flavours of water in Japan like yoghurt flavour, lemon tea flavour and even sweet potato flavour but this was something different. This wasn’t your typical flavoured water series from it actually tasted like black coffee but with a much more water-like texture.
I’m not sure how they were able to come up with this but I wonder if this will ever catch on here in Tokyo.
Anyway, I made a tutorial video on youtube with a step-by-step process of how I approach every watercolour painting.
Step 1 - Plan your painting
I used to be to lazy and forget to do this but ever since I started doing this simple step I've saved myself from a lot of mistakes down the road. In order to warm up my arm I try to do a few little quick sketches in my sketchbook, as well as a colour test to see what colours would look right on the actual painting.
Step 2 - Sketch out the main drawing.
This is like the skeleton of your painting. Without this step you painting is going to look weird and distorted.
Step 3 - Apply Masking fluid to the highlights
Where ever the light bounces off the glass and making a sort of shine. Apply masking fluid to these areas because you want to keep these areas white, and the whitest possible shade you can get is the white of the paper. That's where masking fluid comes in and it repels any water when you're painting keeping those areas nice and white. Once you're finished with your painting, you can just gently rub it away and it won't damage your work.
Step 4 - Apply the lightest shade to the darkest shade to your paining
With watercolours, always think light to dark. You want to add the lightest shades first and then gradually go darker, as it's really hard to remove the paint once it's absorbed into the paper. If you're not sure about the paint shade, try and keep a scrap piece of watercolour paper handy to test about the paint mixture before you apply it to your painting.
Step 5 - Add the Details.
This is the final step and the step where your painting starts to take shape.
If you were worried about your painting looking terrible in the latter stages, don't worry this is the step where your painting starts to take form and start looking the way you intended it too.
Hope you enjoyed the video and good luck with your future paintings!
Natalie X
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