Painting watercolor leaves

I love to paint leaves. There is something so relaxing and enjoyable about painting simple leaves.

Happy Sunday, friends! 💚

This painting was done using a large flat brush and a cut up credit card. A little experimentation and fun!

I wet the paper with clean water making leaf shapes using the large flat brush. Then I dipped my plastic card into the watercolor paint and moved the card across the paper to create some nice leaf shapes.

My watercolors used are from Daniel Smith:
Undersea Green
Prussian Blue

A little close up view here. I love how the colors move across the paper when it hits the water. The swirls and blending on the paper is kind of magical. 🙂

It seems when I just paint and play without worry, nice things happen.

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love. Until next time, share a smile and shine on.

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram at pattyanneart

Visit my new shop on Society6

Oh that coral pink!

I recently bought a pad of Arches watercolor paper and decided to limit it to only floral paintings. Today I have one of those paintings to share with you.

Happy Sunday, friends! 💗

My favorite coral pink watercolor combination:
Quinacridone Rose +
Yellow Ochre +
Pyrrol Scarlet (just a tiny bit)

I started by painting the flower petals first. That way I have lots of room and freedom to position them anywhere on the page. Then I can fill in with leaves and stems all around and balance things out.

I’m very happy with the soft petals. While the paint was still wet, I used a clean brush and a little water to soften the edges.

For the flower centers, I used a very small brush and a dark color mix. It took a couple layers of paint to get the deep color that I wanted. The dark color in the center of the flowers really wakes up this painting.

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love. Until next time, share a smile and shine on.

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram at pattyanneart

Silent Sunday – warm glow

Wishing you a wonderful day. 🧡

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram @pattyanneart

Sunday sketchbook

I thought it would be fun to take you on a walk through my sketchbook today.

Happy Sunday! 💚

My sketchbook is filled with a lot of quick sketches. As you will see, I don’t spend much time on detail or shading. Below are a few of my recent favorites.

I like to play with shapes and work on different ideas.

My sketchbook is all about playing and having fun.

I do most of my sketching with a pen and that means no erasing. 😊

I think sketching that way builds muscle memory and confidence.

Sometimes a little floral sketch will inspire a painting.

I like to use a variety of micron pens in different sizes and colors. A colorful sketch like this one makes me smile. It’s fun to play with color and try out different combinations.

I love to doodle and sketch underwater life. My hope is that these little sketches will lead to more ideas and bigger projects.

I hope you enjoyed this quick stroll through my sketchbook. Until next time, keep playing and having fun.

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram at pattyanneart

Undersea painting – watercolor and ink

I thought it would be fun to work on an underwater scene. I’m fascinated with sea life and really love visiting Aquariums.

Happy Sunday, friends! 💙

I painted some circles and fun shapes first. Then once it was dry, I started sketching on top.

In my sketchbook I practiced a bit and played with different pens and colors. It doesn’t look like much but it really helps build confidence before adding all of the ink detail on the final piece.

This is a close up of the finished piece. I really like this color palette of blue, green, and gold. I layered different shapes and used a variety of pens and markers from my stash.

It’s so much fun to just let go and see what happens.

7 x 10 inch mixed media- Ocean

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love. Thank you for stopping by and following along.

Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram @pattyanneart

Rocky Beach landscape

Today I have a watercolor landscape to share with you.

Happy Sunday, friends! 💚

12 x 16 inch Rocky Beach

This painting was a good practice with some mixed results. I think it’s a good time to do a little self critique. There’s always something to learn from each painting. Hopefully I will be able to carry a few of these lessons forward to improve my next landscape.

The sky:
It is a bit too moody.
Maybe a larger brush and brighter color in the sky would have been a better choice.

The distant mountains:
I really like how the mountains turned out with interesting color and depth.
Using the credit cards here helped me stay rather loose and create some nice texture.

The water:
Nice gentle waves that were not overworked.
The large flat brush to the rescue here.

Beach foreground:
The sandy area fades nicely into the water.
The rocky area in front should have probably had more detail and maybe been broken up into smaller random shapes.

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love. Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram at pattyanneart

Blue Hydrangea watercolor

Today I have a blue hydrangea to share that I painted with a limited palette.

Hope your day is wonderful, friends! 💙

9 x 12 inch – Blue Hydrangea watercolor

Daniel Smith watercolors used:
Prussian Blue
Undersea Green

A limited palette seems to free up my mind while I am painting. I love that it also pushes me to use colors in a way that I might not have tried before.

This painting was done using cut up credit cards. I haven’t given up on my brushes but lately this is my jam! 😉

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love.

Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram @pattyanneart

Color inspiration – hot pink!

My pink Azaleas just make my heart sing. That color is amazing! 💗
#colorcrush

Happy Thursday, friends! 🌸

The green gold leaves look so pretty next to the bright pink.

Now on to my sketchbook for some play time.

Daniel Smith watercolors used:
Quinacridone Magenta
Prussian Blue
Undersea Green (just for the tiny stems)

I decided to experiment by painting my flowers using a cut up credit card. I’ve been using a plastic card on landscapes and thought I’d give it a go with flowers.

I wet part part of the paper with clean water. Just trying for playful strokes by pulling and pushing around the paint on the paper. I really wasn’t sure if this would be a success or a big fail. Color mixing happened right on the paper. At times I dipped the card into thick paint and other times a watery mix.

Using a plastic card can be unpredictable but I found it was also quite exciting. My flowers ended up rather loose and artsy. Yay, I like that.

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love. Until next time, share a smile and shine on!

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram @pattyanneart

Silent Sunday watercolor

9 x 12 inch – Crashing Waves at the Beach

🌸. Patty Anne. 🌸

Join me on Instagram @pattyanneart

Sweet Little birds

Today I’m going to show you how my little bird painting came together.

It started with some cute templates that I made. When I’m painting birds I like to block out the bird shapes first.

I like being able to physically move the templates around and place the birds in different positions to find the best placement before I make any pencil marks on the page.

For this painting I decided to overlap two birds on the left facing the bird on the right. These little guys are sharing a special moment… 😉

The watercolor technique used here was wet on wet. Which is simply wetting the paper first with clean water and then dropping in wet paint. The magic happens when the paint mixes and mingles on the paper.

I worked my way across the paper starting with the bird on the left working on one bird shape at a time using the wet on wet technique. Each bird will be similar but not exactly the same and hopefully this would keep me from dragging my wrist through wet paint.

The next step was adding a little ink detail with a small waterproof pen. At this point I noticed that I needed a few more darks on the wings and so I added a little more paint there to finish the birds.

The last step was adding a background and a few details to the branches. Since the birds are the focal point, I tried to keep the branches rather soft without too much detail.

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love. Keep playing and having fun. Until next time, share a smile and sprinkle kindness everywhere.

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram @pattyanneart