We can use it on a printed reference and on our paintings themselves to check results. It has 20 Munsell neutral accurate steps and a wipe clean surface (more important than you’d think). I really like the Paul Centore value scale (recommend by Paul Foxton and others). The first tool is an accurate value scale. And if you do this enough over a period of years you can probably train yourselves eventually to do that 🙂 But it will be a hit and miss experience and using a couple of tools can accelerate the process of improving our visual perception enormously. Ideally we’d be doing this as we go and purely using our eyes and color perception. Color isolator for watercolor pear Useful Painting Toolsīefore we start to paint we’re going to work out our main values and colors. A Couple of Useful Painting Tools to Help Us Paul Centore value scale Color isolator – print on paper or thin card and cut out the central square with a knife. Checking a couple of reference points every time you put a line in can ‘magically’ make the drawing work. Another one might be that the vertical of the left leg is also hits that eye if I extend it upwards. For instance that little left knobble of the eye in the right hand elephant is almost level with the point of the ear. I concentrate on the angles and making sure each end point of each line is in the right place with regard to everything around it. Once the height and width are worked out we have good reference points to put in the main drawing. In fact, even after I did some careful measuring, you can see that my elephants’ legs are still a little too short but I don’t think this matters in the end result. I found that elephants are actually a lot taller than you’d think and it’s really easy to make them too stumpy in the leg. Work out the Height to Width Ratio First!įor the drawing itself I started by carefully working out the height to width ratio for the elephants. A mechanical pencil is ideal as it always has an even width line and never needs sharpening. I don’t want to put any shading in here as it will show through when we start to paint. I also use a mechanical pencil for all my watercolor drawing. Using standard hardware store masking tape I tape a piece of paper to a lightweight drawing board. It’s a little more work but it is the most cost effective way to buy good quality watercolor paper. I usually buy large 22″x30″ sheets and tear them into quarters. I’m working on a 11″x15″ piece of Fabriano Artistico 140lb cold press watercolor paper. Elephant outline drawing Use a Mechanical Pencil for Watercolor Drawing

A elephant outline