When my students start learning watercolors for fashion illustration, they’re always worried about the possibilities they have with their watercolor sets. Actually, they’re not aware of the true potential of their sets; they use to think they need more color tubes to have more colors to work on their illustrations. And, they believe that having a bigger watercolor set will make their illustrations better, more interesting, and more colorful.
Do you feel the same way? Do you think you’re restricted to the 12/18/24 (or whatever amount of) colors in your set?
I definitely did. Almost ten years ago when I started studying watercolors and creating paintings and illustrations. I used to worry about the so few colors I had, and I wanted to spend every new dollar buying more colors.
I didn’t know the reach my 12-color set could have until I explored with each and every one of the colors in my set – and I got blown away!
To know the potential of your watercolors (and any other tool, material, or art media) you need to get to know them deeply, and you have to explore with them non-stop.
The first step is to approach the basics; the whole course and the first challenge of Watercolors for Fashion Illustration are to help you with that very first step. And now the next move is to dig deeper into color.
To help you with that, this challenge is here!
This month is all about getting to know your watercolors and discover its true color potential.
So during this challenge, I’m going to share some exercises for those of you who want more colors in your watercolor set (yet you don’t need to buy more of them!). For those who think the colors from the color wheel are not enough to create their gorgeous illustrations. And for you, if you want to master your watercolors and get to know them as profoundly as you know your boyfriend 🙂
This is so exciting! You ready?
3 Things You Gotta Do After Learning the Basics Watercolors
Alright, in a minute I’ll talk you a bit more about this month’s challenge. In the meantime, I want you to take away these tips because they’re the foundation of this challenge, and they’ll help you to harness your watercolors to use them to create your fashion illustrations:
1 | Explore with your watercolors.
Don’t take for granted all you see and read in videos, books, or posts. Exploring with your watercolors and the color possibilities you can create is the best way to get to know them, and reign them. So take your watercolors and experiment with them to find all the skin tones, hair colors, and tints and shades you can create with the colors in your whole set.
2 | Document your experiments.
Have you found yourself creating a smoothie that tastes like heaven, and when you want to repeat the recipe to give some smoothie love to someone else, it just doesn’t taste the same? Well, it happens a lot to me (I’m so in LOVE with smoothies, and I’m always creating recipes), and every time it happens I feel embarrassed – I’m starting to think my husband doesn’t believe I’m able to make nopal + pineapple + banana + mint taste good together 😛
Okay, back to my point. You want to document all your experiments because you’ll find colors that you’ll be in LOVE with, and you want to know how did you come up with them in the first place. So take your phone, or your video camera and take photos or record all your experiments: what you create, what colors you mix and what colors you get, and the steps you take. You could also create a color guide or color chart (something I’ll teach in some bonus lessons of the challenge). And make sure you keep your documentation safe 😉
3 | Do this exploration phase from a place of joy + play.
I know you’re eager to start with the big things, and the big challenges like creating a collection of fashion illustrations, or simply an intricate fashion illustration. But all the baby steps you take and all the previous work you do will help you to be stronger + more confident + more skilled when the time comes to tackle those biggies.
So, take one or two hours every week during this month (they could be spread over the week), play your favorite music, and start exploring your watercolor set, and the color options it has to offer.
Are you ready to explore and get to know your watercolors?
So great because during this month’s challenge, we’re going to put into practice the three tips I gave you today!
And for each of the challenge’s weeks I have one lesson to help you with each of the steps to follow.
Week 1:
During the first week, you’ll explore and find out the different colors and tones you can create for the skin. On the course, there are three lessons specifically to create the skin (light, medium, and dark tones). But human skin is not limited to only three colors, so I’ll show you how to come up with more skin tones while using the colors you already have.
Week 2:
On week two, you’ll explore and figure out what other hair colors you can create from your set. Hair is one of my favorite things to illustrate, and this is going to be so fun because you can create dozens of shades for blond hair, black hair, red hair… and you’ll be amazed at how many options you can get 😉
Week 3:
In this week you’re going to give it all to all your set. It’s time to push harder and find out all those color options hidden in 2-color-combinations, 3-color-combinations, and even 4-color-combinations. The most beautiful colors I’ve ever found are not visible to the naked eye; I had to explore and experiment deeply, and it’s your turn to do the same.
Week 4:
Finally, during the fourth week, you’re going to go further (yes, you can further!) and experiment with tints and shades. You’ll realize all the infinite amount of tones and colors you have at your disposal. Oh, can’t wait!!
At the end of each week, you’ll have an optional extra assignment to complement and apply what you learned during the week.
Also, during all the four weeks, you’re going to document your experiments + explorations + combinations with the help of some worksheets to create gorgeous (and super useful!) color charts, and by taking pics of them.
And you can share with me the playlists that you choose to listen while following the challenge!
Ready to dig in?
Prompts
This is the prompts little list for the following four weeks, you can pin it to your favorite board on Pinterest, you can share it with your friends, and you can download it to keep it close to you on your phone.
How it works
The challenge takes place from the 10th of June to the 8th of July – not sure about if there will be prizes nor what they’d be, it all depends on the number of participants. Last month there were dozens of people signing up for the course, but only a few participated via email because the rest were kinda busy to take on the commitment of the challenge. So, let’s see what happens, I’ve in mind some FUN SURPRISE PRIZES, so hope we have some winners!
Okay, this time, we’ll share all our progress only via Instagram, so:
- Follow the lessons and the challenge prompts, and post your progress daily or weekly on Instagram.
- You MUST include #WatercolorsForFashionIllustration in your caption – also, feel free to add #DiscoveringMyWatercolors, but it’s not required.
- Feel free to tag me so I can see your daily pieces – I’m @imkarenavila 🙂
So, will you discover the potential of your watercolors?
My hope for this post is that it encourages you to explore and experiment with your watercolors. I hope it gives you an easy step-by-step on how to do it. And I hope you find the true potential of your watercolors and what you can create with them – even if you only have a small set.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send me an email or post a comment! I’m here to help you and make your learning easier and your skills all that you want them to be. So let me know, and I’ll do whatever I can to help.
Bonus Lessons
Now the fun and juicy stuff, yay!! Click on each of the images below to go to the bonus lesson of the week.
Please note every lesson will be released on the Friday of that week (Week 1: 10th of June, Week 2: 17th of June, Week 3: 24th of June, and Week 4: 1st of July), that way you can make some space in your weekend to get to work on the lessons 😉
