Hey Anne

Oh my gosh, you are SO clever! I’d never realised or even considered WHY the light comes from top left. And I love that it’s switched if an artist is left handed! That’s made my day, that has. Thankyou.

My pleasure

Hi Karen

I’m sure your painting by numbers dog scene was lovely! Glad you’ve decided to come back to it, and have found the time to do so, not an easy ask.

Yes, I do draw direct onto the watercolour paper, but I know a lot of professional botanical illustrators balk at the idea. They tend to create tracings until the drawing is perfect, then push the illustration through. This means they don’t spend time rubbing out graphite on water colour paper which can change the sizing (the sealant). Saying that, it’s not something I’ve ever had a problem with, but if you’re creating expensive art to sell I can see that it could be important to keep everything close to perfect.

Playing around with different elements (say a plant then a separate leaf, or another sprig) can be easier if you have the bits on tracing paper as you can move them ’til the composition is good. Again, I don’t do this, but I know many illustrators who do. It’s a personal thing, and I think using the tracing is a way of getting close to perfection before getting marks onto your watercolour paper. I’m afraid I’m a little more slap-dash! both appraoches are fine, i think it’s very much a matter of what you feel more comfortable with.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your art!
X

Question about drawing:
Do you typically draw your entire illustration directly on the paper that you will be painting? I see where some artists draw on one paper and then transfer that image face down to the clean paper by tracing. That seems so redundant, put it probably depends on how much erasing you do on the original?

Hi Ros, I’m so glad! I also love that you’ve been paddling about in my blogs, that’s a wonderful thing to hear. I often use pencil as I way to untangle lights from darks, to simplify a subject before you get onto the complexities of colour. In fact, another good excersize is to do a watercolour, but in only one colour. I like sepia-brown or a sort of dark blue-grey for these studies. Again, it’s just a helpful way of figuring out the tonality pf a subject. Thanks for your comment, and for the the positive feedback!