Digitizing and Editing My Watercolour Background
The original Wilted Peony was painted using M. Graham watercolours on Legion's Stonehenge Aqua 140lbs hot pressed paper. It works beautifully. I often forgot I was not using Arches except when it came time to pealing the tape off - it did not fair so well. Arches appears to me to be a stronger paper, resisting peeling. I did not do any real scrubbing on this paper but I am wary about how well it could handle it.
I don't know about you, but after having watched many videos of artists editing their scans and photos for media upload and print, I thought I knew what I was embarking on. I've used apps on my phone! I know how to remove zits from pictures! How hard can it be to mask a background and apply colours? Boy, was I wrong!
First, if you can get your hands on a tablet: do. In my case, I borrowed my niece's Wacom Intuos tablet. I just wished I had done it sooner instead of having spent a morning trying to create a digital signature using my touchpad!
Second, no matter what program you are using, try finding a step by step tutorial explaining exactly how to apply the changes you want to make. In my case, I quickly discovered Photoshop was not as intuitive as I thought it might be.
Third -- I did not do this one on purpose -- put aside a calm rainy day to explore your new toys and maybe some good music or a new show or podcast to binge-listen too. Try something calming. I used some choice expletives while trying to navigate back from an "edit in quick mask mode" which I had to look up online after 15 minutes of clicking and trying to undo what I did not know I did. I am still not sure what I did and how it all went wrong, but I know how to fix it.
Finally, if you are trying colour combinations, take note of the colour code so that you can replicate if necessary. I had to use the colour picker a few times after having forgotten a few colours I used, and a few colours I liked I could not get back to exactly, or maybe I did, I can't tell because I did not take note!
In any case, which background colour is your favourite? Any colours you think I should try out?