Watercolors

What the painting shows

The photo shows six small watercolour paintings laid out on a desk next to an open tin of pan watercolours, a brush, fine-liner ink pens and cotton swabs. It is a set of practice pieces, each painted step by step by following a YouTube tutorial, so every sheet covers a different subject and a different technique.

In the top left corner there are ocean waves in shades of turquoise and navy, with white sea foam painted so it looks like lace. Below it is a view from a balcony: a black railing and a metal canopy frame drawn in thin ink lines, with a bay, a cliff and green shrubs beyond. In the middle sits a mountain lake that mirrors dark spruce trees and blue-grey peaks fading into mist. Under that is a small harbour at low tide, where a few white sailing boats rest on wet sand beneath a grey, rainy sky.

On the right are the two most surprising pieces. One is a colourful, almost stained-glass head of a deer with yellow antlers, built from patches of pink, purple, blue and orange on beige paper. The other is a calm, grey sea with the black tentacles of a sea monster, much like the legendary kraken, rising out of the water.

Technique and style

All of the pieces are watercolour on paper, some combined with ink drawing (especially the balcony view). They show the classic watercolour techniques: wet-on-wet washes for the sky and water, layered glazes that give the mountains depth, white paper left unpainted for the foam on the waves, and soft colour blends in the deer portrait. Together they show what learning watercolour looks like across several subjects: mountain landscape, seascape, architecture and animals.

At a glance

• Medium: watercolour with ink outlines
• Surface: paper
• Orientation: landscape (horizontal)
• Dominant colours: turquoise, navy, greys, green, a multicoloured accent in the deer portrait
• Subjects: sea waves, balcony view over a bay, mountain lake, harbour with sailing boats, colourful deer, kraken

Fun fact

For more than a century, painters bought a brown pigment called mummy brown that really was made from ground-up Egyptian mummies, both human and feline. It was used in oil paints and watercolours, and some artists only stopped using it when they found out where it came from. In the 1960s, the London colourman C. Roberson announced that it had run out of mummies and had no plans to get more.

Want a similar painting?

The Fart studio paints commissioned artwork: portraits of people and pets, landscapes and absurd scenes like this one. You can order a similar piece featuring sea waves, balcony view over a bay, mountain lake, starring your own pet, a loved one or your favourite place. Just describe your idea in the contact form and attach a photo.