This was my first experience. I am not sure I enjoyed it. It lacks refinement. I was never able to create something like a brown colour.  I have redone the exercice with coloured pencil. Skills are closer to the ones used in drawing.

This was not my very first time with watercolours but it was my first time with colour mixing. It was challenging and I’m not super happy with the outcome but I guess (read: hope :D) it’s first and foremost a matter of practice. With some shades it was easier, especially when it was mostly a matter of adding shade or tint. With others it was hard to tell what colour it was (e.g. the lower breast of the rosy-finch), so I added here and there till I thought I had it, but the colour on paper wasn’t as I expected. Something else I noticed is that, once it dries, the colour looks a little different from when it’s still wet, and that too at times tricked me into believing I’d got the colour right, but then it turned out to be too light.

As a child, I painted a lot with watercolors and knew how to mix the colors I wanted. Back then, I had two yellows, two blues, two reds, white and black. Now, 40 years later, I have completely different watercolors, including greens and browns, but not all the colors I was familiar with before. I was able to achieve the color tones in the pictures for the assignment easily, but I had more difficulty with my own flower picture. I have many peonies whose colors can't be properly brought out on camera. I thought that by painting I would be able to capture the color tones better, but it still requires a lot of practice.

My first experience of watercolours and mixing colours, some took a lot of trial and error to even get vaguely close. That said, I really enjoyed the whole thing and look forward to learning more.

This was the first experience I have had with watercolors.  It was a little difficult creating the color I was going for, some I was happy with, some I was not.  Watercolor will be a challenge for me, but I am looking forward to continue to learn about the medium.  I have used acrylics and colored pencil alot, but not watercolor.

First experience with water colors.Easier than expected Colors were for greenish white hydrangea and for fern leaf. Used 3 colors for hydrangea 65, 114, and 003 made it just right. For fern used 92 and 251, grey for the dark green color.

I’m very happy with how my color palates turned out. Using complementary colors to achieve toned down versions of colors is such an effective technique!

I have not used watercolors since I was in elementary school and an 8 color Prang watercolor set was on our school supply list, so basically. I have not properly used watercolors before.  Mixing the colors was fun when I was just playing with the colors, but trying to get the color I wanted was very difficult.  I need a lot more practice!  My practice sheet was the same paper as the sheet in my journal, and yet the colors in the journal dried lighter.  I hope when I get to know the colors better it will get easier.

I enjoyed creating palettes for each of the images. I found using the tint, tone and shade along with the complimentary colors very helpful. This exercise required close inspection and contemplation.

I've only used watercolours with my kids when they were young. I didn't know there were so many options for mixing colours - it seems endless! It was hard to get the colour the exact match for sure. I had to remind myself there was no right or wrong, just having fun and experimenting! 

This was great fun and so challenging 

I learned a lot through the exercices of tints, tones ans shades, as well as progressive mix of complementary. I have experience with watercolor but I usually use a brush ( best results is sable for me). I enjoyed experimenting with the colors to change tints, tones and shades, and then obtaining neutral tones with complementary colors. After this, when I prepared my color chart for the morning light, I could feel that I understood better how to  quickly modify the shades to obtain the color I needed. For the finch, I felt more at ease mixing my colors. Waterpen is a bit tricky to ajust to,  for water quantity and also the need to remove color on tip at every mix and change of color. Great exercice, thanks. I can see improvement. Still need to go slower and plan for layers and drying time, but better result for sure. Happy!

Unfortunately, this lesson ended quickly when I discovered the Koi Water Colors palette I ordered didn't come with gray or black, and most of the colors were fluorescent. I will order a new palette and return to this lesson.

Did anyone else get a set of watercolors that doesn't have black and grey? I got the materials for the course, but my palette of paints is totally different than the instructors. Frustrating.

I have been exploring watercolors for a couple of years. This exercise was enjoyable and challenged me to look closely at the variety of colors. Making color palettes is one of my favorite aspects of watercolors. Most of the palettes I’ve made for nature journaling are for flowers, leaves, & birds. I noticed how many of the colors repeat throughout the subjects I’m painting.

This was my first experience working with watercolors.  It was fun but at the same time difficult to get the color exactly as my eye was seeing it in the pictures.  More practice will be needed!

1.  This isn't my first experience, but definitely my first experience trying to closely observe and match colors.  I found it easier to mix the warmer colors than the cool blue.  2. I used a photograph I had taken of an American Lady in a pollinator garden where I work.  It was late in the season and the butterfly was a little beat up, but it was feeding on Zinnia's and I thought the colors with the sky looked really beautiful together.  My challenge was definitely with the blue, which I never ended up getting "just right." 3.  I noticed that the colors of the butterfly itself could all be achieved by beginning with the lightest color and then mixing in other colors from there to work darker.  It was interesting that this butterfly's palette is so seamless.

This was a refresh for painting with watercolors, definitely easier then I expected. Although the paint bleeds easily, the product can be very impressive. While focusing on the image I discovered the purple patch of feathers in the shoulder.

This was my first true experience with watercolors and a water brush, I bought them a while back and I have been so excited to reach this point in the course. Color mixing is a lot of fun and I must admit addicting, it is late and I want to keep going... here are the swatches I created for the two images (poor lighting for the photo). I think they came out pretty close to the actual colors I was trying to achieve. Some colors definitely took longer to create than others. By closely focusing on certain colors, over time I could see more depth and tones in the colors within the image. I look forward to taking my nature sketching and journaling to the next level by adding color! .

I'll definitely have to play around a bit to get to know the various colors - I was a little surprised that some of them had opaque characteristics. And the water brush will have a learning curve too - never tried one of those, but I can see how it would be useful for little field studies! Creating the color palette was fun. Relationships - three of my swatches shared a color - I noted the corresponding number from the pans beside each swatch.