Ballroom Dancing Watercolor Painting

I have further worked on the ballroom dancing watercolor painting last night.  As you can see, I have added a wash on the gentlemans dancing gown.  What I learned is that I should prepare a large watercolor wash instead of trying to mix more in the middle of painting it.  I did that in a flat wash which uses more color than other washes.  Because I need to keep the edges wet between washes, I have a hard time doing that and mixing more paint.  In other areas of the gown, I have use gradated wash so that the final result will show variation of the dark color instead of one flat pure grey black ballroom gown.

Ballroom Dancing Watercolor Painting

I have continued with my ballroom dancing watercolor painting last night.  I found that as I paint everyday, I have easily make mistakes either on the watercolor wash, the choice of color, the wetness of the paper etc.  It is a continuous learning process and without risking making mistakes, I won’t be able to learn.
Last night I have learnt that the pure watercolor from the tube can get ‘dirty’ by mixing with dirty water.  You also have to watch out for the unclean brush too.  Last night I loaded my brush with some water from my brush cleaning water, dip into Winsor Yellow and mix it in my palette before putting on the paper.  On the palette it looks nice and bright and I even try it on a piece of scrap watercolor paper before I apply it on my painting.  But after I finished painting a large area with that mixture, I found that it is really muddy compare with the ones I did the night before.  It was the water I use to mix the paint with.  The water is from the night before and it was the brush cleaning water I am using.  Now I know it is wise to keep two jars of water for my watercolor painting, one clean one for mixing and one for cleaning brushes with.
The lession I have learned from my mistake is the quickest way to get muddy watercolor and easiest way to waste brilliant watercolor pigment.  Those two would give you dull and opaque watercolor and should be something to avoid in our daily watercolor painting.  Love to hear from those who have similar experience.

Ballroom Dancing Watercolor Painting

Gradated Watercolor Wash Lesson

After leaving it to dry overnight, I have done a small 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch gradated wash just for the exercise.  It was done with a brush loaded with a certain color with the paper put on vertical.  More clean water is being put on the brush together with paint and was applied at the bottom of each wash.
Looking at my ballroom dance painting again I feel I might have tackled too big an area at one time and loose control over some of the washes. Well, I guess you don’t learn if you do not make mistake.

Ballroom Watercolor Painting Pencil Sketch

I have attended a ballroom competition on the weekend and took more than one thousand photos of the very exciting event.  I have been thinking of doing some painting of ballroom dancers in the back of my mind for a long time.  I know I need to capture the elegant movement of the dance as well as the energy behind the dance.  One thing in my favor is that I am a ballroom dancer myself and hopefully I can transfer some of that passion and emotion into the ballroom painting.
I am doing this in a 15 x 20.5 inch watercolor painting on cold press watercolor paper.  I have choosen a this dancing couple in my weekend collection of photos for their brightness of the ladies dress.  The men are usually in their black suits contrasts to the glittering of the ladies costume.  Also I like to choose some are more representative and I like the the dances to show less of the face in the painting.  I have started my pencil outline drawing as shown here and will continue with it in the coming days.  My aim is to do a series of ballroom paintings if I can find enough good photograph for the exercise.