Another artist friend, J, visited my studio recently. She was looking for some watercolor tips. Turns out she doesn’t need any. She’s a marvelous, multi-talented artist in her own right. J’s a graphic designer by training and years in the trade, now a professional photographer, a published writer, and a fabulous person. By the by, she’s also a whiz with technology.
Now, she is “dabbling” in watercolor and calligraphy. She brought some of her work for me to “review.” Her artistry blew me away. She gifted me this fabulous original I will soon mat and frame. But for now, it sits in my studio to inspire.
Please show me how to do this one!
(J’s work.)
I asked, holding this cute pack of six florals.
We spent the next couple of hours painting together. Now I can’t stop!
I want to share this technique with you. It’s so simple and fun.
First, pick a limited palette, no more than three colors. I chose French Ultra Marine Blue, Quinn Violet, and Aurelian for the demo. But you can use any two or three you like. ( I had more success on the second one with a lighter red, scroll down to see it.)
Make a “tea” mixture of paint, which loads more water than pigment. Experiment with wet on wet and wet on dry.
In wet on wet, you wet the paper, then put wet paint on the paper. In wet on dry, you put wet paint on dry paper. J recommends leaving a white space for the flower center. But I encourage you to experiment and see what works for you. Have fun, let loose.
More of J’s work
You can easily do 12 circle blobs in half an hour. Make it your adult recess. (I recently wrote about adult “recess” here.) Let it dry. I let mine dry overnight.
I experimented with pens
and agreed with J: a Micron .005 pen is fabulous. You can order them by the box from Walmart here. This is not an affiliate link, I’m not paid to recommend them. Before you order new pens, experiment with what you have on hand. As you see I did above with different weight pens.
For the video, I used too much pigment to water, turning the florals too opaque, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Once I decided I “hated” what I’d done and it was “ruined,” I started truly playing. I smeared the paint around on the paper, using a big house brush, paper towels, and various squirt bottles. It was SO much fun!
I put some saran wrap on top of the paper to see if that added any interesting textures and tossed it aside to dry overnight. But I didn’t want to end on such a sour note, so I took what I learned and painted even more freely for another 20 minutes.
Ta-Da!
The next day, I decided the first one wasn’t ruined after all, and the second one is really promising. I decided these mushed-up blobs could make interesting peonies. (I’m still mourning the end of peony season.)
I chose peonies because I’ve struggled for years to paint them. I continue to work on drawing, and since it was all a hot mess anyway, why not start with something that I expect to fail? It lowered the stakes immeasurably and increased the joy when I finished with something I like.
Because the peonies are all gone now, and I was trying to learn how to draw peonies and see peonies with the informed vision of someone who can draw, I found a brilliant website with loads of creative ideas. I highly recommend you download their handout.
Next, I took my new Micron Pen and went to town. It was so fun because I had zero expectations. I’d ruined this painting so many times there was no way it could look worse
.
I amazed myself. The sheet is crap. But if I cut these out and paste them to cards, they look amazing!!
Or at least I think they do.
Another friend, W, with whom I share a remarkable synchronicity of spirit, sent me this photo of another way to play with pen and ink watercolors as I was writing this newsletter.
Fish anyone?
There is no limit to the beautiful things you can do with these. Google “children’s coloring pages” and go mad.
What do you think? What will you try?
Want to watch me paint?
Will you do me a favor? Post whatever you do on Cedar Valley Painters’ Facebook page so I can delight in your creativity. Be warned: I will steal all your good ideas, just like I did with J and W!
Happy painting!
xo
Felicia
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