One of the things about watercolor painting is that you often have slices of time where you are waiting for a wash to dry so that you can carry on with painting. This is one of those slices, so I figured it would be an opportune moment to blog.

This is the piece I’m currently working on:

The subject is Buster, a feisty little brindle-colored Boston Terrier/French Bulldog cross who was submitted for my in-progress book, Doggitude 1. While brindle happens to be my favorite dog color, it is challenging to paint. It’s easy to go too dark, too fast and not leave enough lighter striping to “read” right. So I always use the drying time to stare at a painting and figure out my next moves. I’m pretty confident in my overall process, but it’s worth being a little more deliberate and thoughtful when it comes to putting the brush on the paper.

A couple of notes about my setup: I’m a big fan of re-purposing inexpensive stuff for use in my art-making. The ceramic plate being used as a palette was $1 at the Dollar Tree store, and works as well as any expensive butcher tray. Those small ceramic mixing dishes are drip saucers for use under flower pots, discovered at WalMart for a dollar-something each (which reminds me, I need to get off the farm and go fetch a few more of them). I will admit to loving the little 5-saucer stacking ceramic palette set that I’ve seen at DickBlick.com for $12 or so, but I didn’t have to pay for shipping for those pot saucers

Okay…paint is dry so I’m gonna get back to it…I want to finish this painting today so I can get started on the next one…

Update: The painting is finished. Take a look at the pictures below to get a sense how it progressed from start to finish. Successful painting in watercolors is really all about the process!

And that’s it! Now on to the next…