Watercolor Critique welcome

[Daniel Grissom]

Hey Y’all,

I watched and followed along to Lee’s Luminous Lighting in Mixed Media class. I’m a little stuck now, so I could use some advice.

I can’t get the line work down like Lee does without it bleeding everywhere. My next step is to figure out how to do that. Granted, I don’t have any acrylic ink so I’ve tried dark concentrated watercolor and also India ink. Bleeds too much when I wet the paper. If I don’t wet the paper, it doesn’t blend with previous layers at all. Can I only achieve Lee’s effect with acrylic ink? In the past I’ve let the paint dry and done hard lines with brush pens but I really like the organic, sketchy feel that Lee achieves in that class. Any artists have any suggestions on how to proceed with the lines?

One lesson learned is to get better watercolor paper. This isn’t nearly sturdy enough. Maybe that’s why the lines bleed too much too.

(I’m also having a hard time with the big plants on the right side. I tried to avoid crisp edges, but now it looks too blurry/muddy. Not sure. Any advice on any part of this painting is welcome)

[Lee White]

You should be fine with the india ink, etc. One of the best tips I can give you if you are losing control of the lines is to use bigger paper. The thing to remember is the line always stays relatively the same size, so as you increase the size of the paper, the line is easier to control because it just takes up less space.

[Daniel Grissom]

@Lee-White oh yea that makes sense. I could definitely see how that would have helped here. Thanks!