Before I get started, I want to make clear that the original image above is by Charlie Davis Illustration and I do not have any copyright permission for the use of this image.

Original by Charlie Davis

So now for my reasoning behind using someone else's image as a basis to start from.

I struggle with adding colour. You may say I struggle with drawing too but I feel I can get somewhere close eventually with my drawing but colour, shade and tone still evade me.

I have a growing fondness for watercolour which surprised me as I always associated it it with wishy washy landscapes. However the more I play with it the more I see its potential.

So in order to be able to focus on watercolour alone, I decided to create a copy of someone else's image who has successfully used shade, colour and tone as a starting point. By removing the original drawing aspect, I could remove one variable.

I roughly traced around Charlie Davis' original digital piece in Procreate then printed a copy onto standard printer paper. I used it as tracing paper and simple used a graphite stick on the back and transferred using a pencil to watercolour paper. Worked pretty successfully but why I did it this way when I have an A4 pad of tracing paper is beyond me.

Previously I would have applied the colour wash to the whole page but I decided to just apply it to the background. Looking back I think maybe its a little strong but still happy enough with it. A previous observation of my tutor is that I could apply more abstraction to the backgrounds and by doing this I noticed Davis has successfully, and very simply, added interest to his background by doing this too (see below).

I then added the lightest colour to all other elements separately so that each subsequent layer would build on this.

Next layer added midtones I guess and starts to bring the piece to life and relieves the flatness from it. I did add too much in the collar of the coat though, this should have waited until I added shadow layer. Good learning point for sure.

Finished piece - not perfect but definitely learned a lot from this exercise.

I did a similar process with an original piece by YiniyaArt as I loved the way they used such delicate tones in their work.

I managed this piece much easier but its largely flatter, other than the obvious cast shadow, than the Charlie Davis piece and I love it for exactly that reason.