Reddit reviews Creating Textured Landscapes with Pen, Ink and Watercolor

Aw, shucks. Thanks!

It helps me a ton that while I'm brand new at actually painting, I'm not new to drawing or even digital painting at all since I work as a 3D/Digital artist. So for me, getting used to watercolors has mostly just been about learning to control the paint itself.

As far as that goes, I think the biggest thing is just to try to see what other painters do as far as techniques go.

Someone posted this video here a while back and I found it absolutely incredible. Watching the way these guys work with their color and some of the methods they use to get the paint to do what they want, bleeding here or there or being tightly controlled there, was really helpful to me.

My teacher also had this book laying around while we were working, and it has an absolute ton of interesting ways to use different tools or approaches to get different effects. It also has a lot of nice step-by-step illustrations so you can see how the artist blocks in color and then refines detail.

I guess really the best advice I can give you is to experiment with different looks or styles. If you see something another watercolor artist does, don't be afraid to copy that effect or approach. By experimenting with different approaches, hopefully you'll find some tools that really speak to you as an artist that you can employ in your painting from there on out. And most of all, just enjoy it. I didn't set out with any real goals for this class or learning watercolors; I just did it as something fun and as a way to be creative for fun and not just for work again. So if you're enjoying yourself and trying different techniques that make you have fun with it, that's the most important thing you can be doing as a beginner if you ask me.

Feel free to shoot me some links to any pieces you'd like any critique or suggestions on, I'm no expert but I'd be happy to offer whatever advice I can.