Rendering Saga: Watercolor Schwag.

This may be one of my last posts as my sophomore year starts. My plates missed me so much and I know… Sooon…. Plates will devour me and make me into a zombie bwahaha. 

These are some of my rendering plates. Both VPT2 and Color Theory. 

I finally got the hang of using watercolor. I like it. It suits me. I’m still not the best at it however, I always have that will to strive-an ambition that will make me hone my skills and finesse. 

This plate is my first landscape painting done professionally and with sophistication. Thomasians might not guess this location well but it’s the Quadri Park behind the main building. I always take photos of my plates before I pass it. Sometimes plates are rolled or folded which makes me annoyed because of the crumpled paper or crunched paper :( I just dislike taking pictures of my work that looks a bit distorted.

And yes we work till the last minute, we CFAD people are like that.

Quadri Park in Monochrome
Details: Brown watercolor (Prang) on 12x18" Canson watercolor paper

I am quite relieved I got a good score on this one J this is one of the plates I did not have a grid to aid me and I improved my sketching skills. (Note: I know it is quite cheap to use the grid method in sketching, but come on, it is heck of a time-saver when it comes to someone fussy in accuracy like me, I dislike things that are not up to par with my standard and I WILL not send a crappy work.) I was a bit frantic because my professor is really keen on our proportion, he judges realism heavily on that criteria, and I am not good in proportion lol. I am a messy artist.Moving on is my next VPT plate, forgive me if I can't post the reference photo :'( My iTouch has issues.

UST - Beato Angelico Facade
Details: Watercolor (Prang) on 12x18" Canson Watercolor Paper

I have a love-or-hate relationship with this plate. I hate the tree from the far left and I love the whole look and on how I did it. I am still disturbed by the fact I rushed this plate. Too many details in a short amount of time and I am crazy if I did not even make it seem real or really close to the real image. Surprisingly my professor said in a good tone, "It seems like a picture *giggles*" and he joked that he was going to put my plate away or give me deduction because I rushed the grass something like that and I was like deep inside, "OMG HAHAHA It was that nice?" Seriously? It was just nicely done but I HATE THE TREE IT DRIVES ME NUTS. (Because the lines are harsh looking, I did not even make it softer and the other parts sharper).

Details: Watercolor (Prang) on 12x18" Canson Watercolor Paper

Next is the wood, glass and metal plate, I only loved the metal part. :) Though it could've been more better it was so-so for me. I love the metal rose tho, because I love roses and I had more effort on that one and the rest slacked hahaha. 

The next plate is a big one, a 1/4 illustration board plate. We are tasked to pick a room that has metal, wood and glass in it, no limits on what type as long as these three elements are present.

I chose an Industrial-styled room :) It is the easiest pick since almost all elements are there, and the reason why I named this watercolor schwag because I like things stylish and difficult. (not those gangsta McDonald swag eh?) Pretty much the ones I pick are suicide plates because of too much detailing needed to be done. 

Glass, Wood, and Metal in Interiors
Details: Watercolor on 15x20" Berkeley Board.

It looks different eh? I just copied my printout and printers sometimes make photos darker or lighter than the ones from the computer :)). I love these kinds of interiors I like it vibrant, very appealing and different than others, the ones I researched when I was looking for a photo seemed dull, and uninteresting for me. I like my works to be interesting because it is lively. I just sacrificed my time to make plate schwag and YOLOs.

Ah finals, but before I can even enjoy this was my last VPT plate. I chose a retail shop, Diesel Denim. This was Maiko Tanijiri’s design called, “Nature Factory”. I love how creative this interior is. I love creativity. I am just down when I see interiors that are just up to the norm. Though, I do appreciate all kinds of designs.

"Nature Factory"
Details: Mixed Media (Watercolor, Soft Pastels, Colored Pencils) on 15x20" Berkeley Board.

This is my favorite plate of all :) Aside from this being one of my favorite interiors of all time, I managed to do the mode I want, which is mixed media. I love mixed media, I love to work with a lot of materials, I sometimes can't stand working on just one mode. I want to do with different kinds of stuff and be creative about it. Because I need speed, and watercolor doesn't give me speed.

These are my other finals and pre-finals Color Theory plates. 

Details: Watercolor on 1/8 Berkeley Board

I liked my finals because I lived my style in a good manner. I love dark colors, not those almost pitch black stuff, I just like my colors to be vampy-ish. But I just made a mistake-slash-misunderstanding on my pre-finals plate. I colored an ebony furniture finish that is terribly a no-no in nurseries. I acknowledge my professor’s comment since she is the Color Goddess, however it was a furniture finish that was the same as the one I got on the photo L and I thought that it’s fine to retain the color finish. Guess I’m wrong, so I got a tres. 

And lastly, My interior perspective finals. I did mine to be simple and practical. Also to be cohesive with the “Chinese Modern” concept. I made it warm so it is welcoming, but not too powerful, I just like how the red makes an instant pop of color to the interior. It seems that I, sometimes let go of my cray-cray side haha. If I could show you my past designs (if I could retrieve some of it) you would see I'm less crazy haha. 

Manual-Drawn and Rendered Perspective
Details: Kurecolor and colored pencils on A3 tracing paper.

So that's most of my plates during my First Year, Second Semester run. I had fun rendering. I am scared at first because I couldn't do it for the first time, yet, I did surprise myself. Now I challenge myself, will I evolve and get my skills to set the bar? Let's see :) and I would be glad to share you guys my adventure, this second year will be another breakthrough for me and another learning ground.

Thanks for reading my loong loong post ^_^ At some time, again.

Rendering Saga: Comeback

Carrying on… I hope that my misery ends with my next plate. Yes, it might be a bit tedious to hear me be like this, but come on! Who wouldn’t feel disappointed with a crappy work especially in a competitive environment that I as a student and a dreamer am expected to keep up with all these demands? That’s why I chose to move on with this type of learning curve. 

We’re still at the basics, charts to color mixing and the like. Let me show you some.This was another of my basic plates, the challenge is, to render a cone, a sphere, a cube, and a cylinder using watercolor and only the black ones is pre-mixed, meaning I have to mix the other three secondary colors.

Shades and Shadow Plate (rendered)
Details: Watercolor on Canson Watercolor Sketchpad 12x18"

A tip I used one time when I was rendering monochrome colors like these, I used water-colored pencils to line out pertaining to the color I'll render on. Why? Because it would be cleaner than the ordinary graphite as the water blends out the line of the watercolor. Also, this method will help you not to stress about harsh lead lines caused by graphite pencils (It is also tedious to erase outlines that sometimes doesn't come off too). Example: I used lavander-colored pencil to fill out the Violet ones (Left).

Another of my basics is the one from my Color Theory subject. Before we render rooms, we are taught to be accurate with color mixing as if we’re color chemists. One of the plates I did back then was a designed color wheel. I was really inspired by lace, roses and leather belts which reflects on my design. I like that vibe of elegance, toughness and edginess which is my personality and style. The same design was also applied on my tints and shades plate.

Themed color wheel plate

Details: Poster color on 1/4 Illustration board.

Themed Shades and Tints PlateDetails: Poster color on 1/4 Illustration board.

On the side note, I was about to do an arch of the centuries-themed plate until I realized that my tape lining was not fit for it, so I reverted back to my original plan. On to the plate, I am really color-crazy. I am crazy in color-matching. I want all things to match up. In this challenge I noticed that a lot struggled in keeping the difference in color as I saw some of my professor’s notes on others’ plates. I was terrified at that point, skeptic that I would, again, have a bad day because I let my indolence kick in. Shockingly I almost got an Uno, but cleanliness failed me because some of my linings taped off the paper and there are some lead lines that I can’t remove (See why I am pissed off with lead? Because that annoying thing happens). 

I could’ve have gotten an Uno if wasn’t because of my lack of finesse.

The Unforgiving Watercolor

“Watercolor is hard”
“Watercolor is unforgiving”
“You no op controlling wuterkulor, wuterkulor control you”
“Watercolor is one of the hardest mediums to master”

Those are the quotes that I encountered. Almost no one worked with it, or even dared to work with it. Most of us are graphite artists, inclined to anime, or acrylic painters. For most of us, this plate is our first encounter of watercolor myself included. 

Our first exercise plate is to color in the primary and secondary color in three types of washes: Light – little pigment, most water
Medium – even balance between pigment and water
Heavy – little water, more pigment.

The second part of the first exercise is to make an ombre effect, light to heavy wash with primary and secondary colors.

Side note: Those taking Interior Design at University of Santo Tomas, this might be one of your freshman plate (depends on who your professor is)

The plate:

Details: Watercolor (Prang) on 12x18" Canson watercolor paper

Yeah I know I screwed this plate big time. I am keen on my work and I am flabbergasted that I cannot even perform properly, especially on my first plate. The blending is rough. I hate how streaky it is and how I have my dead spots there also mixed up paints.... My performance here is not up to par.

(I call the second picture, a deadspot, because when things go too well then it felt inconsistent suddenly, to me that's a deadspot)

Now for the flood of feels....

Now enough for the feels, any watercolor rookie will screw up. Watercolor is so unpredictable.

Opinions on using watercolor:

          Likes:

• It is interesting
• You just let the paint and water flow to create something that's new and exciting
• A little goes a long way
• You can easily map out mistakes as long as it's not dry
• It is diverse in techniques (Dry brush, wet on wet, etc. etc. I might post a vid of an artist I adore as a water-color artist she mentioned good things about watercolor and I learned a ton from her.)  
• Once you mastered this media, you can really have tons of tricks up in your sleeve, not to mention, impression.
  
  Dislikes:

• You can easily screw it up.
• Hard to master. 
• Unforgiving. 
• (If you are solely relying on water color) You cannot layer a lighter paint over it. DEFINITELY NEVER, you just can't, not easily, why is that? Watercolor is basically working from light to dark. The pigment is not concentrated like how poster paints, acrylics, and other freaking media. (not unless you are a mixed media artist well screw this rule up). 
• If you painted an area that is supposedly white, you're gonna have a hard time. One, once the paint is on the paper, you have to remove the paint while it's wet or damp. Two, If your paint is dry and you neglected to leave that area white you can't just remove that part without a price. Either you make it damp again by adding water and removing it but certainly the paper cannot be restored to its original color also you might overwork your paper. 
• It has to be on a certain ratio of water to paint. Too much pigment will make your paper sticky like a gum left on its wrap. However, you can definitely make it pale or translucent if that's what you aim for. Another tip I would stress on, if you plan to make watercolor uber pigmented, just use poster color or acrylic instead so it won't be sticky especially using Prang watercolor.
  
  (From what I use as far as I can remember, Prang is the only brand that makes highly pigmented portions sticky, mainly because watercolor had honey as an ingredient and unfortunately I don't have a source or ingredient list of Prang because I misplaced my watercolor set I don't know why but hopefully it is stated there. Some say that it is edible because kids use it (still unconfirmed info, if I did have internet source and a book or at least have a breakdown of its' composition I would gladly update this.)
• You have to be patient and work in a certain pace, not too slow or too fast. 

That's it for today's post :) I hope you will find it helpful on what to expect on using watercolor and some base knowledge on how it should be. Although I am not a fan of tutorials, I might give out advice or reminders. Comment below for requests and I might consider on covering a post about that :)

Credits to wikipedia for the watercolor information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watercolor_painting