Hey Mark, The supplies tumbling down the left of the page are joyful, enjoyable! Lots of fun.
I think where this could use another try (luckily were on levels, so no huge problem with this) is the colour used on the mug and lamp. On the lamp, the dark (and less cheerful) colour of the stem is so dark that it stands out above all else in your illustration. This calls the viewer's attention to it, whereas it's not something of great importance - either visually in the image or conceptually in what's being shown. So even if in fact your lamp has a brown stem like that, light grey, or light brown or even more purple would help it stand out less.
Next the purple paint (I'm guessing water colour or transparent ink). It's good that you're experimenting with different tones in the lamp shade, but in general there and elsewhere in the lamp and mug, your brushstrokes are smaller than than they need to be and seem like you're struggling with the watercolour rather than letting it flow easily onto your page. This is absolutly not the case with the cat at the bottom of the page, but more about him later. In short, the brush strokes on the mug and lampshade don't look confident. Which, if you're not super experienced with watercolour happens all the time. On the base of the lamp that's less so. There you've got that on circular stroke in the second layer done on top of the base.
Now imagine if the same approach was used on the shade of the lamp - three wide vertical strokes of paint curving slightly to conform to the shape of the shade. This would have a simple, breezy, confident quality. Better than the many small horizontal strokes approach you've used. The mug, too may simply have too many strokes, thought the problem is less severe here. Maybe try this with both: don't worry so much about fitting the strokes exactly to your drawing - I assume you're using a light box or window and doing the colour on a separate page. Use a bigger brush and wetter mix of paint and water. Use some big strokes and don't pay strict attention to the edges of the line work. Move the paper you're painting on and try again. As you're using broad quick strokes it won't take long to do several tries. Try letting a layer of paint dry and coming back later with a second broad stroke. Once you're in Photoshop with a line layer and a colour layer (the colour layer you didn't worry about fitting exactly), place the colour layer (in multiply) over the line layer. It doesn't fit, it's too big. So now use the magic wand and select the area outside, say, the mug, then - important -move to your colour layer and hit delete. Now your colour fits perfectly, but it's been done in wider, more confident strokes!
As you use watercolour more, you'll begin to enjoy the 'accidents' that naturally occur. And sometimes you'll fit them to your line work, or sometimes being a bit looser about exact fit will add some interest - a different approach than the magic wand exact fit method.
In any case, a good beginning, and I love the idea that the cat is the actual culprit, and he's sleeping - Mr Innocent - down in the corner. I don't think you need the red text down there, we can get what's going on without that.
And with the cat, the watercolour is used wonderfully, confidently, with nice tonal variation and no little distracting brush strokes! I love the colour on the cat, More like that please!
Thanks, Bill, for the detailed feedback - spot on (of course)! I'll have another go with the lamp and mug, as you suggest. And the cat (in fact, a paperweight, but drawing and then colouring him brought him to life) was fun. The title came from a cartoon I found and I decided to steal it, which is when the cat became the culprit....
Comments
I think where this could use another try (luckily were on levels, so no huge problem with this) is the colour used on the mug and lamp. On the lamp, the dark (and less cheerful) colour of the stem is so dark that it stands out above all else in your illustration. This calls the viewer's attention to it, whereas it's not something of great importance - either visually in the image or conceptually in what's being shown. So even if in fact your lamp has a brown stem like that, light grey, or light brown or even more purple would help it stand out less.
Next the purple paint (I'm guessing water colour or transparent ink). It's good that you're experimenting with different tones in the lamp shade, but in general there and elsewhere in the lamp and mug, your brushstrokes are smaller than than they need to be and seem like you're struggling with the watercolour rather than letting it flow easily onto your page. This is absolutly not the case with the cat at the bottom of the page, but more about him later. In short, the brush strokes on the mug and lampshade don't look confident. Which, if you're not super experienced with watercolour happens all the time. On the base of the lamp that's less so. There you've got that on circular stroke in the second layer done on top of the base.
Now imagine if the same approach was used on the shade of the lamp - three wide vertical strokes of paint curving slightly to conform to the shape of the shade. This would have a simple, breezy, confident quality. Better than the many small horizontal strokes approach you've used. The mug, too may simply have too many strokes, thought the problem is less severe here. Maybe try this with both: don't worry so much about fitting the strokes exactly to your drawing - I assume you're using a light box or window and doing the colour on a separate page. Use a bigger brush and wetter mix of paint and water. Use some big strokes and don't pay strict attention to the edges of the line work. Move the paper you're painting on and try again. As you're using broad quick strokes it won't take long to do several tries. Try letting a layer of paint dry and coming back later with a second broad stroke. Once you're in Photoshop with a line layer and a colour layer (the colour layer you didn't worry about fitting exactly), place the colour layer (in multiply) over the line layer. It doesn't fit, it's too big. So now use the magic wand and select the area outside, say, the mug, then - important -move to your colour layer and hit delete. Now your colour fits perfectly, but it's been done in wider, more confident strokes!
As you use watercolour more, you'll begin to enjoy the 'accidents' that naturally occur. And sometimes you'll fit them to your line work, or sometimes being a bit looser about exact fit will add some interest - a different approach than the magic wand exact fit method.
In any case, a good beginning, and I love the idea that the cat is the actual culprit, and he's sleeping - Mr Innocent - down in the corner. I don't think you need the red text down there, we can get what's going on without that.
And with the cat, the watercolour is used wonderfully, confidently, with nice tonal variation and no little distracting brush strokes! I love the colour on the cat, More like that please!