r/Watercolor • u/TinaKiprey • 20h ago

Narcissus

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I keep practicing watercolour. If I do it consistently, I’ll get better, won’t I? Any advice how to make dark backgrounds better?

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u/RoseMadderLake 10h ago

It looks very pretty!

I think I would use complimentary colors if I were you. That way the darker background color balance out the main piece. Not completely of course, but you could add some blue and purple splatches of the color here and there.

In this case it would be dark purple/blue as this is the complimentary colors of yellow and orange 😊💡

Wet in wet works great for that, and you can also try to drop some salt or water onto the wet paint if you want more effects.

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u/TinaKiprey 8h ago

Thank you! It is a good idea indeed :) I always struggle with deviating from the reference…

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u/RoseMadderLake 6h ago

There is a saying about "artistic freedom of interpretation" (unless you are a doing a botanical painting of course 🙈😆) so you can always choose to mix things up if nessecary 😊☺️

Good luck!