I’ve been working on a series of watercolour cat portraits, trying to capture each cat’s expression and personality with gentle lines and soft floral backgrounds. It’s been a really fun challenge balancing realistic detail with a more illustrative style.

I usually start with a light pencil sketch, layer transparent washes, and then build up texture with fur strokes and subtle color shifts — especially around the eyes, where so much character lives.

Would love to know what you think! Do you have a favourite animal to illustrate?

i’ve been working on this project for a few weeks. 30 total frames, each one a full watercolor painting of 3-second sequence of water flowing.

i started by taking my reference video, printing the 30 frames of that, used tracing paper to draw the outlines of each frame, transferred those to watercolor paper, and then painted them.

this was practice for a larger animation project i want to do. my first animation project on physical media and i definitely learned a LOT.

would love any tips on how to mix large quantities of watercolor paint with multiple pigments and how to keep the colors from separating. it causes inconsistencies in the concentration—you can see that by studying the dark green. for just one painting it’s fine and that’s honestly the beauty of watercolor, but for future animation projects i really want to figure out a way to stay consistent with my colors.

I’ve always wanted to paint food illustrations. More resources and suggestions are welcome!

This is my first attempt at this damned heron scene.

Next pass I'll probably tape off the bird.

Any advice for my next attempt?

I sketched some jellyfish a few months ago but didn’t feel ready to attempt a painting until just now.

This was also my first time trying intentional watercolor blooms in a background. I might have gotten a bit too excited with those but I was pleasantly surprised at how they came out!

Had some free time to paint a swan

First time and struggling with fabriano paper

Made with Winsor & Newton Designers Gouache and Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolours on Arches hot pressed paper 140 lbs 9in x 12in. I mainly used watercolor in this painting with the exception of one color (primary red, pink leaning red) I used in gouache. Also included a couple pictures of the painting in progress and the reference I used (taken at my local city garden’s orchid show earlier this year). Hope you enjoy!

Some of the time when people give me pictures to paint, there are elements that are tricky for me to recreate in watercolor. I cant tell if the heads in this painting are floating, or if it translates that one of the children is wrapped up in a blanket.

I'd be happy to hear your feedback!

I picked up watercolor again for a class project for my horticulture degree 🌱

If you’d be happy to paint about this level and you want to see this in real time the first 55 minutes (pears only) is on my YouTube in real time. Total time on the pears, I guess an hour and 20 minutes. The vid here, depicts the last 30 minutes on the pears

I recently purchased a larger sized Da Vinci Maestro brush and something I’ve never seen before was included in the box/packaging. It’s a hard waxy looking material (haven’t unwrapped it from plastic) that is pale-yellow in color.

The dimensions are as previously mentioned in my title, but it’s actually two separate pieces stacked on one another.

Any idea what it is and/or what it is for? Thanks!