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KCHuang — Undomiel
#arwen #arwenevenstar #birds #lordoftherings #lotr #woman #arwenundómiel
Published: 2017-05-05 19:57:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 470; Favourites: 29; Downloads: 0
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@ProjectCommenters - if you can give some tips on watercolour technique, that'd be fantastic! I'm still trying to figure out the medium, it's totally non-intuitive >_<--
“Frodo saw her whom few mortals had yet seen; Arwen, daughter of Elrond, in whom it was said that the likeness of Lúthien had come on earth again; and she was called Undómiel, for she was the Evenstar of her people."― The Fellowship of the Ring, Many Meetings
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If you like this one, don't forget to check out my Strider drawing as well
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Tolkien nerds - can you guess what kind birds are flying in the background?
I was inspired by Laovaan to try my hand at some watercolor portraits...of course I'm not as good as he is, but one can always dream!
Interesting discovery - I found that I can actually erase away my watercolor!
I use really cheap palettes from Michael's that dries chalky, and I can totally lighten the color after it dries by taking an eraser to it. This is so exciting.--
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Comments: 24
Hello from ProjectComment !
It's always nice to see watercolors in ProjectComment gallery and this is no exception. You have captured the inhumanity of the elven character very well.
The anatomy (in terms of position of the elements) is fairly accurate, although it’s better to keep in mind that the eyes are positioned at the center of the head, so her skull should be a bit higher even though her face is slightly turned up (don’t forget that hair add up some volume too). And her left eye might be a bit too high and too far away. It is easier to see if you flip your painting horizontally or just use a mirror.
As for watercolor techniques I like the interplay of cool blue in her hair with reds on her lips (very tender!) and some browns on the neck. One issue here is the use of plain black paint: it usually looks too harsh and simple compared to the subtler purple tones. Just mixing black using of alizarin crimson with emerald green and adding some ultramarine blue to make it closer to blue or purple can greatly improve the impact. The second suggestion I'd like to make is to use a flat synthetic or marten brush to apply geometric strokes, that can help you shape the forms more efficiently than the pure tone. A broad flat side of the brush allows you to create patches colour and the other, narrower side allows you to draw fine lines. I personally prefer flat angular synthetic brushes (mongoose imitation) they allow even more precise control over paint. They don't hold as much water as a squirrel brushes but it's a matter of personal preference.
I would like to talk about the temperature of colour within your artwork. Although you can have mainly cool or warm colours, you would generally still need some variation and you shouldn't be afraid of it. Here you have mostly cool blue purple and pink colours, but you have some warm brown as well. Maybe it would be better to incorporate some more yellowish or even greenish tones to her face while maintaining the general color scheme quite cool, in order to achieve more balance. I have just finished a similar sketch, to illustrate what I mean
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Thanks so much for your comment! I just realized that I should probably get some better quality watercolors (I didn't realize this until now when you were talking about color mixing - I have palettes that are I'm guessing are super beginner, and I doubt the colors have names). Do you have any sets or brands that you recommend?
And your pieces are amazing, I've actually been low-key a fan for a while
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Bad paints are usually tricky not just because they are low quality, but these sets are composed of some crazy pigments that are impossible to mix into something realistic.
i personally use mostly van Gogh watercolors, they are supposed to be not professional, but student grade, but they are very decent and have a good choice of colors, nice texture and they are pretty lightfast. If you are willing to spend more, W&N are good ang they have a larger selection of pigments. I have a wild mixture of these brands plus Schminke. As for the pigments, i prefer bying them separately, because most of the larger sets have a lot of stuff that I do not use and lack some pigments I need. The minimal set that you need consists of: yellow ochre, madder lake red, ultramarine, emerald green, burnt umber and cobalt blue. Then you might want to add yellow cadmium and/or lemon cadmium (they are rarely needed for my stuff, but they are useful), english red, some other red like alizarine crimson, raw umber and some blues like cerulean blue or indigo. Payne's gray is a nice mix for a pretty black.
Thank you for the compliments
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Thanks so much!!! Next time my art store has a sale I'm totally going to pick some up, using this comment as a shopping guide haha.
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You are welcome
I have bought some new pigments this week, because I was bored with my minimalistic palette and wanted to try something new, so now I'm having fun with all sorts of purples. Oo
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Lovely. I am a paint by numbers type of person with water colors (draw then paint) so can't offer any advice. It is a hard medium to master.
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<3 Thank you! It is indeed really really hard, I've been struggling on and off for about a year now. You should see my earliest attempts, it really looked like a 3rd grader flailing at the paper LOL
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Beautiful piece love it colors placement of elements everything
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The color totally matches with Arwen! Beautifull pic
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Thank you! I'm so happy you noticed, that's what I was aiming for
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Hello there!
I am here from . I will go over the good,what needs work,and how to go about adding to it.
The good:
I like the use of colors here. It is like a monochrome theme here with the different purples and blacks. The skin resembles a lighter purple with some grey mixed in but still keeps with the theme. I like that you gave it a lineless look and let the paint define the shapes and contours of everything. The hair looks especially nice and I like how you did the part and defined the strands too. That is pretty hard to do especially with paint let alone watercolor. It has a beach feel to it which is nice but I can't quite explain why. The birds were a nice touch as well.
What needs work:
A few tips, keep experimenting an look up some tutorials on YouTube and such,that will help. I use that since I am learning more about water color too. Water colors are hard to control and it takes time to manipulate it but your work looks very promising. I can link you to some tips if you like. I would define some things more,like the nose and the shapes within the face,shade the eyelids with some Color a little more as well. Also,you could use darker shades of purple to replace the solid black to create a different look.
Overall:
This looks really good. I like the style and techniques you used here. I hope you continue to advance in painting,it is neat to work with. Keep it up.
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Thank you for your thoughts! Let's continue our watercolor journey together
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Yeah no problem.
Perhaps her eyes could be lowered a little but other than that, very beautiful rendering.
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Ah.. I mean, I don't use watercolor much, but I guess I can try. The shading on the neck looks really dark compared to say, the face. Or at least that one little triangular purple shadey thing looks a little out of place on the neck.. Maybe it just needs to be blended out more. And maybe don't go in with straight up black for the darkest parts of the hair, or at least it looks like it's straight up black. If you were going with the dark brown in the picture it would be fine but as you're using a lighter color of purple just mix some purple with just a tad of black and experiment with like, shading circles. The eyes are really nice and I love how you did the fabric and the skin tone.
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Thanks! I am likewise very happy with the eyes, fabric, and skin tone
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It does take a little while to get used to lightening a photo with your eyes, maybe using a photo editor would help next time. You can pick what you what light or dark from that. Anyways, its really good. I can barely use watercolor myself. Haha.
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I don't use watercolor that often, so I don't really know that much about it, but this is pretty cool
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