Water Color Tips and Advice

[Old Rose Tattoo]

Hey guys, I have been doing most of my coloring for flash and drawings with prisma color pencils. I recently started trying water color and its tricky. I was curious if anyone had any pointers, tips, or advice on how they use water colors. I have see so many different things online and i have tried a few Im sure like anything it just takes practice but any feedback would be awesome!! Pictures would be even better also

[sketchcornwell]

I’m not a tattooer, just an enthusiast. But I come from a fine arts background and have always had a lose painterly style. I typically use acrylic with a lot of paint. Not that long ago, I started trying to tighten up my style and learn allot of the techniques used for painting flash. For me the two biggest things were using the right paint and using very little paint on the brush. I’ve been using Dr. PH Martins, which have a very dense amount of pigment.

The biggest challenge that I've had is having to be very deliberate and sure of each stroke. I used to just put the paint down more instinctively and if I didn’t like it, I'd just paint over it. That’s very hard to do when you want to leave allot of paper showing through. This is probably a good reason that I wouldn't want to become a tattooer.

[MrToby]

I have been using Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour Pencils for a long time and recently started using Winsor & Newton Inks as well. With both I have found that having the colour concentrated at one point initially and drawing it out works quite effectively to get a nice graded look. Certainly with the inks I have also found that not having a lot of ink on the brush gives me a lot more control. I am a long way from being an expert on this though so it is definitely worth just trying things out and seeing what works.

[Brock Varty]

Use Higgins Black Magic as your black. Truest, deepest waterfast black there is. Spend the money on good brushes. I like simmons blend brushes...squirellhair, synthetic blend. Don't worry about trying to be perfect. You will do hundreds of watercolors before you get one good one.

The most important things for me are this: Paint loose. paint fast, line with a brush, don't worry about actual color until you can blend black super smooth(from true black to paper with a perfect gradient).

If you have more specific questions, please post 'em.