Misha step-by-step (+tools)

okay, you guys seemed interested in this so here it iiis! i'm not a pro at this whole watercolour thing, i've only been dabbling every now and then and i realised there's a ton to learn about how these colours work, especially if you're interested in purchasing high-quality colours ' -') if anyone here has any experience with watercolours, please feel free to educate me with everything you know!

so, this isn't a tutorial, just how i usually do it! at the bottom of the post there's pictures of the tools i use regularly!

1.) i like to start out with a rough sketch, i don't usually clean them up, because the softest lines won't be visible anymore anyway once there's colour on them. also me cleaning up sketches always means erasing the life out of my art orz;;;; 

2.) this is the scariest step and after this one i decide if have to start over or if i can use the drawing hahah. i try to decide on colours beforehand, because for the base i like to mix 2 colours to create some kind of atmosphere. like in his hair the added pink that's also there in his collar and his gloves (but not in his shirt, because that would've been overload imho). i don't know how others do it, but i always have 2 brushes and some tissues in all of my hands, one brush is filled with water,  the other with the colour and then i wet the paper, drop the ink-filled brush on it and blend the colour with the water-filled brush, let it dry for a moment and then dab the tissue on it to avoid dried edges unless i want them. it's always a gamble though and the dried result never what i was going for, which is fun too because it forces me to improvise a lot xD

3.) time to add some shadows! for this step i really like to use purple/navy blue or a weird magenta/grey/brown mix, depending on the base colours. since they're pretty warm in this picture, i went for navy blue. for this step it's important to dab tissues on the coloured areas a lot!! otherwise weird edges appear, i'm not sure if that's because of the paper, though. i try to keep the shading soft, the dried colour always looks a little darker after all, also i can always add another layer of colour later! i also try to blend the colours a lot on the skin, for soft transissions, while adding sharper shadows on clothes etc.

once that's done and dried i grab my polychromos to trace some of the lines that have vanished too much so that the important parts of the image pop out a little more. if the contrast in colouring is too weak for my tastes, i'll add more depths with them, too. but i don't think i did in this case, it looked fine to me.

4.) my favourte part! \o/ white ink &a super thin brush to add light and sparkles and maybe make some lines stand out more against the rest. (i also picked up the watercolours again to add some blush to misha's face)

FINISHED 🎉✨💕🎉✨💕🎉✨💕

the tools i used:

the colours:

i'm a big fan of the colorex inks, they're perfect for hobby artists. you get 10 colours for like 30 EUR and the ink is so so so pigmented, a single drop of colour mixed with some water gets you a loooong way while still getting really vibrant colours, they're amazing.

i'm not too fond of the royal talens half-pans i have, but i'm a cheap dude and i bought them in like 7th grade and i'm not about to throw them away and they're still enough for my current skills. i actually prefer my paints in tubes, my favourite brand so far is schmincke, but despite what every art-supply-shop employee will tell you: cheap paints work just as fine!! they might not last as long as the really expensive ones and have some disadvantages (i worked in a shop like that so i know all the theory xD) but in general EVERYTHING GOES, expensive supplies don't make your art better.

the brushes:

my favourite is the da vinci synthetics XS brush, it can store so much water, i'm impressed every time. i can paint large areas with it without having to pick up new paint which is amazing. the fit for school brush set is mainly used for colorex, because they don't store as much water and/or ink and the ink is already super liquid and intense so it's better to not have too much of it in your brush imho. idk why the water brush is on the picture tbh, i haven't really used it in a while but they're great if you wanna paint while you're traveling, because you don't need a cup of water next to you etc! they're very convenient but i've learned to prefer regular brushes over them.

the extras & paper:

i know i preached about cheap tools being great,too, BUT for coloured pencils i will always forever recommend polychromos to EVERYONE. they're indestructible and the colours are //amazing//. super high pigmented, they work on top of dark colours too, they blend so so nicely and are just overall absolutely perfect. i have yet to find other coloured pencils that are as amazing as these. ALSO they're waterproof, so they're perfect to add details to watercolour art.

watercolour paper is a very personal choice and before buying a certain type i recommend visiting your local art supply store, they usually have paper samples you can take for free to try them out and find your preferred ones. i believe some online stores sell samples for a few bucks, too, i'd always do that before buying an entire thing, especially since the paper can be super pricey x _x)
my personal favourites are the two in the picture above. canson produces good stuff (also really nice sketchbooks!!), the XL one is pretty cheap and easy to use, especially for beginners, because even when the paint is dry, you can softly remove it again by adding water on it, which is fantastic. also the paint is easy to control on this one, the paper texture doesn't mess with the artist too much imho

torchon is a whole 'nother deal but it's also my favourite. the texture looks BEAUTIFUL but paint is harder to control. "pros" never recommend this type to beginners (maybe also because it can be expensive as fuck, the canson one is still okay price-wise, but the hahnemuehle version is like 30 EUR for ?? 20 sheets, DIN A5) but i got used to it pretty quickly, it cooperates nicely with my painting style, i think.

not on the photo is the white ink i use, which is the "deleter white 2". it's my friend, it's served me well, even when it dried out a little, some added water made it usable again ; ;)

YEA that's pretty much it, i hope this was a little interesting to anyone!! if you have anything else you want me to talk about or show you, feel free to yell at me! i'm not comfortable doing tutorials on this stuff since my experiences are not a lot and my knowledge still only very tiny but i'm always happy to ramble about what i do and how i do it and what works and doesn't work for me!

smoochies all around <3