It's a watercolour.........

Willow Pond 14th June 2009 5.00pm
watercolour and coloured pencil in Conté à Paris sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

.....but it's got coloured pencil on top as I'm not great at watercolour!

I was trying out a new sketching kit during a late afternoon sketch of a weed covered Willow Pond while sat on my new sketching stool on Heron Bridge. (See Ecology Park Pond series)

• set of 12 large pans of Schminke watercolours
• enormous brush - specifically chosen so I wasn't tempted to get detail oriented
• Conté à Paris sketchbook - an old favourite, great paper for watercolour sketches
• 2 pill tubs for water - haven't tried these before but they work fine
  
• a few coloured pencils
• pentel HB mechanical pencil - for initial layout

The big brush worked in terms of avoiding detail. Mixing watercolours was much faster as well plus it was great for working round edges and softening them up when used with clean water, however I think it'll take a bit of practice before I can use it really effectively.

The most difficult bit was trying to work out the mix for the very dark water. I was mixing complementary colours for quite a while before I hit on the perfect mixture which of course I now can't remember as I didn't write it down!

I did write a blog post A few tips about watercolour last year - such a pity I can't always remember them. It was originally written as much as a reminder for me as anybody else! I think I might need to print it out before I have another go.

Sketchercise: 5,509 steps 2.608 miles