If you are drawing from life, you are forced to observe, so to speak, but when working from a photograph, for example, the illustrator can fall back on simply copying the image. I think the best watercolor illustration is that which looks closely at the subject, and then interprets that subject rather than simply copying it.
Observation is the unsung hero of watercolor illustration. The excitement of brushes, pigments, and technique, and the assumption that by controlling them, art will follow, leads most people to start their watercolor journey focusing on technique and media. Watercolor, however, has a way of rewarding the people who first learned to observe. By observe, I don’t mean merely looking, but analyzing the relationships between light, color, edges, and negative space. Without it, even if the technique is spot-on, the work can end up feeling unmotivated, or merely decorative.
The illustrator starts by observing the light. In watercolor, it is essential to recognize that the medium works in reverse. The light will not be created with paint, it will be held. Therefore, one must observe the light, observe where it fades, and where it is lost altogether. In observing, the illustrator will learn not to cover the whole surface with paint, to preserve light. That is a deliberate choice, not an arbitrary one. Observing value enables the illustrator to know when to leave the paper alone, to allow the illustration to glow, to achieve depth without stacking too many layers.
Equally important is color. The colors you choose can dramatically enhance or hinder the atmosphere of an image, and when observing color, it’s important to remember that few things are truly just one flat color. Shadows have colors reflected in them, highlights have colors that shift in temperature, and even seemingly neutral areas can have bits of color in them. In watercolor, this translates to mixing as much as possible instead of using colors straight from the tube.
The third way that observing your subject changes your watercolor drawing is edges. Just as not all values or colors are created equal, not all edges are created equal either. Edges are areas that will dissolve into washes next to them, and edges that need to be crisp to lead the eye. By observing the softness and crispness of edges, you can plan how to approach the edge with the water and pigment on your paper. This also helps you avoid over-defining things, which can make watercolor look tight and un-fun, even though watercolor is one of the most loose mediums there is.
In the end, it’s the act of observing that teaches us to be patient and have faith in what we see. It makes us pause for the time it takes to shift from our usual knee-jerk reactions to more deliberate choices. With this comes a visual language that allows us to paint intuitively while still maintaining accuracy. Watercolor illustration based on observation means fewer unexpected surprises and more considered responses. We can still be expressive, but our expression will be rooted in comprehension and our illustrations will speak clearly and humbly to everyone who looks at them.