Learning to paint clouds with watercolor

I’m practicing with my watercolors daily. In fact, I’ve got a signed contract in front of me that says I’ve agreed to practice watercolor 365 consecutive days. I signed the contract in blood. Actually, I didn’t use blood — I used my Muji 0.38mm gel pen.

I want my children’s book illustration to have cute clouds, so that’s what I’m practicing. I’ve already learned that opaque colors aren’t going to work with pen and ink drawings. I’m using Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolor for these paintings, and the reds are mostly cadmiums.

And I’ve learned that I’m one impatient guy, and when I get impatient, I try to force the paint onto the page. So, in addition to practicing watercolor painting I’m now practicing being patient. It seems that I’m going to be a very admirable person by December 2019.

I have another watercolor palette filled with Daniel Smith watercolor, all transparent. I going to switch to it when I do tomorrow’s exercises.

Here are my first efforts.