Watercolor and Ink
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Make a Simple Watercolor Wash
Make a Simple Watercolor Wash Watercolor washes have many uses. A background for a card or a hand lettered quote. A first layer for a design or to add depth to a painting. Not only are they useful, watercolor washes are simple too. Ready to give one a try? You will need: Watercolor paper (I am using Canson 140lb.) Masking tape Clipboard Flat brush Paint Water Paper towel 1. First, tape your watercolor paper to a clipboard or other surface to keep it from warping as it dries. I like to cut my paper into quarters to work smaller. Then, if I want to use a wash for a…
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Basic Watercolor Supplies
When you get started with watercolors, it can be quite overwhelming. My advice? Begin small and cost-effective. You’re learning and maybe don’t know if you like painting with watercolors yet. You don’t need artist grade supplies to get a feel for the medium. Buy them when people start asking you to paint for them. That said, artist grade paints will have more pigment in their colors, making their colors richer. But no matter which brand you buy, each behaves differently, so you will always need to get to know your brand. Here are a few basics to get you started painting because painting is the goal, not amazing supplies. Winsor…
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Watercolor Mother’s Day Card Tutorial
Watercolor Mother’s Day Card Tutorial Today, I’ll share a watercolor Mother’s Day card tutorial with you. With Mother’s Day, memories of the sweet influence of so many wonderful women crowd my mind. Some are mothers. Some are not. Some are here and some have passed on. For those who are here, a card seems appropriate to remind them of my care. For those who have passed on, I’ll take some quiet moments to remember the joy they brought to my life. Among the millions of store bought cards, I rarely find one that I want. The quote doesn’t fit or the look isn’t my style. So I dreamed…
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Mix a Color Wheel
Mix a Color Wheel May snuck up on me. I wanted to keep studying style, even repeating the exercises over and over with new objects and letters. So, I will with a continued style study. You can find the introduction here. Sometimes I feel constrained by time. It places boundaries on me that I don’t always like. In saying that, give me a time? I tend to be early. Sometimes too early. But there are times when time just feels like it wants to tie me down. I can feel that way when I’m working on projects here. Because I frame ideas and projects by the length of the month.…
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Finding Your Style – Trillium Study
Trillium Style Study You can follow along with my project exactly, if you want to, but I encourage you to step into your own exploration. If you mimic my project, you will still learn techniques and looks to add to your exploration, but you will stimulate your own creativity less along the way. Because exploration is a process, neither method is right or wrong, just learn from what you do. And Make It Yours when the time is right. 1. Gather pieces of your style, make a collage if you like. The pieces can be pictures, colors, works from your favorite artists, stories, movies, and anything else that you feel…
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Welsh Harlequin Duck with Easter Eggs
March gave us a bonus week just before Easter and April Fools Day, all wrapped up in one. What do you do on April Fools Day? I love pranking my kids. They wake up with marker mustaches, swapped clothing drawers, and switched out cereal boxes. And that’s just the beginning. I don’t care for the mean jokes. They take the fun right out of it for me. No plastic wrapped toilet seats for this girl! I will take wrapping off of chocolate Easter eggs and re-wrap it around grapes to pack inside lunches. To some people that’s real torture … taking away their chocolate. But what should I do…
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Make it Yours
Something happens inside of me when I decide to step out and own something. At that point, I know I’m committed to the idea or project. I decide what that something means to me, how it will impact or change my life and what will become of it. This can happen with art too. As I cultivate curiosity and see things through my perspective of the world. I intentionally see things around me. I invest in seeing. Then, when I put what I see to paper, I move thought to action. I invest in ability, I invest in style and I even invest in you as you see…
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Color Me Curious
How did your design creating go last week? Did you notice and appreciate the designs around you more often than usual? Personally, I’m noticing little things everywhere and wanting to turn everything into a design too! How did it feel to put your designs to paper and add ink? Were you drawn to the page again and again to add just one more design? It can be addicting. I know I’m totally obsessed with it. Each time I thought I was out of ideas, I came up with more. Just wait until you try this next exercise. It will get those creative juices flowing with color and turn that black…
