The Cow place & Kate's CD

I got Kate Johnson's Watercolour Pencil CD recently, and I'm working through the lessons. Though I've drawn with watercolour pencils for quite some time, I hope to be able to use them to their full potential in the future. In the past, I've used them very much as coloured pencils, on cartridge paper, or maybe Stonehenge, with a little water. Now I want to be able to use them for their watercolour properties as well.

Disclaimer: I am not a landscape artist.The first thing I learnt is that I didn't know my greens. Well, I knew my blue-greens, but not my yellow-greens. So I spent yesterday afternoon & evening making test patches of all my pencils - the 48 set, the 36 set, and the mix-mash that I actually use - the ones that I'm phasing out so I can go all Albrecht Durer.

I learnt a lot from doing this drawing. It isn't at all how I want it to be. I want to simplify, which means knowing the colour of your pencils - particularly when they're wet, really well. I can tell you at least ten things wrong with the drawing.

So it's the 'cow place'. It has been cut down from a larger photo I took in Switzerland where we stopped for morning tea between Bern and Gruyere. At the cafe, there were at least twenty life size painted cows, that had been done by different artists. I chose the photo because of the progression from warm to cool colours. I may do it again later when I've learnt to simplify. I'm going to try the volcano Mt Batur in Bali next.