For a while now I’ve been wanting to add colour to some of my prints. Watercolour seems like a soft colour approach but it’s not something I know anything about. So I’ve embarked on a beginners watercolour landscape course. I don’t necessarily want to paint landscapes (and that will be a bonus outcome, in my view) but I thought it a good start point to learn how to apply the paints to create different effects.
LESSON 1: Creating a single colour sky with clouds.
185gsm Medium Arches watercolour paper:
Sample 1:
Not enough cloud definition.
Sample 2:
Much letter definition. A better spread of blue, darker at the top and fading towards the horizon.
300gsm Medium Arches watercolour paper:
Sample 3:
The texture of the thicker paper is much more pronounced. This sort of speckled look doesn’t appeal to me. However, the variation in the laying down of the sky is better, a little more differentiation between high foreground and lower background towards the horizon.
Sample 4:
In this one I see definite movement in the sky. It feels like the wind is blowing the clouds along. I seem to have got the hang of the blue colour placement and the clouds have improved.
I haven’t learned how to do land yet so just put something in to ground the composition, and even that has improved over the four samples.
On to lesson two.
TactualTextiles 
Looking good! I agree, that one really does seem to have movement in it.
I guess with prints you have some printed lines to guide you? Or are you wanting to crate backgrounds and then print?
Hi Nola, I want to add small areas of colour to some of my existing prints, especially those like Elian in the land of the mushrooms and so on. Just highlights here and there.