I hope you are having a wonderful holiday weekend.
Happy Independence day! ❤️ 🇺🇸
I painted this watercolor landscape using a large flat brush and a limited color palette.
I was pretty happy with the results. When I decided I was finished painting I flipped it around to let it dry a bit upside down.
I was a bit shocked by how much I loved this painting upside down. It made me smile and think, how did this even happen?? It looks like a water view now. There’s always something to learn from each painting.
I waited a while before removing the tape around the border and deciding where to place my signature.
I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love. Until next time, share a smile and shine on!
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!
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!
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!
I’ve been painting birthday cards and have a few to share with you today.
Happy Thursday, friends! 💚
I taped off the center area of my cards (with painters tape). Then I painted layers of leaves and buds all around the tape.
After pulling off the tape I had a nice framed area in the center for writing a message.
I decided to add a few of my little paper birds and flowers to this card. I like how it balanced out the frame and added some fun.
My dual tipped Tombow brush pens worked great for writing the birthday message. I practiced a while in my sketchbook before deciding on the blue marker (small tip).
I glued few of my paper flowers on this card and then couldn’t resist adding a little bling. 😉
I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love.
Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!
I recently painted a vase full of pretty tulips and a sweet little bluebird. I always love painting flowers and birds. 😊
Red Tulip – 7 x 10 inch watercolor
I also painted a single red tulip in my sketchbook. This simple tulip makes me happy. I can feel the movement of the leaves and love that bold red color.
I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love. Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!
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.
I decided to play around and warm up a little with my dagger brush. I had an underwater painting in mind and decided to practice some wavy strokes.
The dagger brush has a nice point and wide base. It takes some getting used to but it’s a fun brush and quite versatile.
My warmup process was: – Load the brush with paint – Start at the bottom of the page with just the tip on the paper – Lightly drag the brush upward making a thin line and then press down in a rather wavy motion before lifting up and ending the stroke.
Just playing with two colors, Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna light. I started out with a very dilute mix of each color…
and worked my way up to darker colors.
Later I moved on to the underwater painting I had in mind. It didn’t turn out as I hoped. I may try again later but for now this little practice piece was a keeper. 😊
I’ve been trying out some new brushes lately. I recently purchased a set of 3 Hake brushes. I’ve only used the 2 inch size which is nice but it has been shedding a bit which I am not liking.
Have you tried out any new brushes lately? What is your favorite go to brush?
I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love.
