I. The very, very first sketch
First I drew a sketch using a fountain pen, on a separate sheet of paper. Here I thought about how the final image could work. Or not.
II. “Lineart”
I drew with a hard pencil (4B) on ordinary white paper in A4 as it is used for printing. On this smooth paper, small details can be painted better than on rough watercolor paper. However, this thin smooth paper doesn’t take a lot of water well, so be careful with glazing or you’ll end up painting holes in the paper!
The lines are very light and barely visible.
III. First color layers
With lightly diluted, but light watercolor I applied the first wash on the main image parts. With a thin brush, the book and the woman receive “outlines”.
IV. Painting further…
Over the pink dress and the water, I put a wash in ultramarine blue. The skin color and the details were worked out more; the sky became lilac.
V. More details…
The single details are more emphasized. The dress received another blue wash, and so did the sky.
VI. Attention, skywatchers!
Now I painted the clouds. The water and the dress again received an ultramarine blue wash. The roses got blue dabs of the same color.
VII. Almost there…
Here the decorations and ornaments in the background became more detailed, also the sky and the hydra. The folds in the dress were emphasized by adding a dark purple.
VIII. Yay!
Now there comes the most fun part of the work – opaque white! :D Single white dabs and outlines made the image brighter. Done!