Pepe in watercolors

It's a lazy Saturday afternoon. The sun is shining but it's not too hot and a slight breeze is coming through the window, the perfect day to attempt another watercolor. This is actually the third time I've started this painting. On the first two tries I couldn't get the drawing to look right so I gave up. I guess the third time is the charm. I documented the steps I took on this painting and I think the breaks I took to scan the painting really helped me make a better picture. (Note to self: Remember to take breaks when working on a project.)

First I did the preliminary sketch on a piece of watercolor paper with my Faber-Castle 3-H pencil. Sometimes I have a difficulty drawing on watercolor paper because it's lumpy.

I finished the illustration and now comes the really hard part; erasing everything so you can add the colors. If I like the way a sketch turns out I don't like having to erase it. I'll say to myself, "What if I blow it and screw up the painting now? It looked so good as just a sketch. Why didn't I just leave it alone?"

Ok, I erased everything and used watercolor pencils to color it in. Now I need to get some water and borrow Gorky's brushes. This is the tricky part. Cross your fingers!

That didn't turn out too bad. The final step is inking over the sketch with my Gel-Roller. The Gel-Roller I use most of the time has a big fat tip and some of the lines in my painting are pretty fine so I go with my seldom used Gel-Roller 05. I didn't like the look of the floor in the pencil sketch so I'm going to do it differently with the pen.

There you have it, the final painting. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I started this painting at 10:30AM and finished it around 2:30PM. Not a bad way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Oh yeah, here's the original photo I did the painting from.

When is the last time you enjoyed a lazy afternoon? When is the last time you left me some love?