Christmas branch

Another watercolor painting for Christmas.

Happy Sunday friends! 🙂

9 x 12 inch Christmas branch on bee watercolor paper

Leaves are one of my favorite things to paint and sketch. I decided it would be fun to paint a cheerful branch. I now have my second Christmas card for this year. Yay! 🙂

I started with layers of light green leaves using a round #12 brush. I allowed each layer to dry and worked up to darker leaves in different shades of green.  For the last layer of pine needles, I switched to a flat angle brush which helped me get some nice variation and added texture. As a last step I used a white gel pen for a hint of snow and a few highlights.

I hope you are inspired to create art and do what you love. Thank you for stopping by and following along. Until next time, share a smile and have a great week.

Happy Painting! ❤

Patty Anne

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Christmas Card painting

I recently watched a tutorial by Shayda Campbell,  Candle in the Window Christmas Watercolor and then painted this cute little scene.

Happy Thursday!

 

I modified the greenery a bit and added a little more detail. This painting makes me so happy. It’s going to be one of my Christmas cards this year.

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

Until next time, share a smile and spread kindness all around.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

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PattyAnneArt

Painting butterflies

I have been painting butterflies inspired by Jean Haines. I absolutely love her loose free style of watercolor painting. I found that with just a few simple steps you can paint a little butterfly.

Happy Sunday!

Steps to paint a butterfly:

1. Using a liner #2 brush and a black brown mix, add a small round head. Then just below that, add a line of dots for the body getting smaller as you near the bottom.
2. Outline the top of the wing with a deep color and then use a little clean water to smooth it out.
3. Next to the midsection of the body, add paint with the side of your brush and pull it out away from the body. Continue this on both sides and build up the color.
4. Add more color to the head and wings as needed.

Special notes:

• Allow the paint from the body to touch the wet paint of the wings. Remember that the mix and mingle is where the watercolor magic happens. 🙂
• Be careful to not overwork your butterfly, less is more here.

 

It is always fun to play with different shapes and colors. My favorite butterflies here ended up being the ones in the middle where I left part of the wings unpainted. It feels like they are moving across the page. 🦋

 

Trying to put it all together with a little painting of a flower and butterfly.

Butterfly dreams painted on Bee watercolor paper

I hope you enjoyed this little butterfly practice and are inspired to pick up a paint brush and create art. Thank you for stopping by and following along. Until next time, I hope you have a great week and shine on!

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

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Soft pink roses

A quiet post with soft pink roses today.

🌸 Happy Thursday! 🌸

Soft pink roses  –  9 x 12 inch Bee watercolor paper

 

watercolor inspiration photo – March 2018

Until next time, share a smile and sprinkle kindness all around.

Happy Painting! 😊

Patty Anne

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PattyAnneArt

Lavender and bees

A little more practice painting flowers and bees.

Happy Sunday!

Lavender Days 9 x 12 inch Bee watercolor paper

A loose and simple lavender painting adding a few little bumbles. As I painted the lavender I left a few places to drop in my little bees. They were painted using the 4 simple steps from my previous post, Painting bees.

I love painting and creating, it is such a joy to share my art with all of you. Thank you for stopping by and following me on this journey. All of your kindness and encouragement means the world to me. 💜

I hope you have great week and do something fun. 😊

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

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PattyAnneArt

Painting bees

I’ve been practicing painting bees and flowers. In Jean Haines’ book, Atmospheric Flowers in Watercolour, she noted that adding little bees to your flower paintings will give them more energy and interest.

The cute little bees in Jean’s book looked like a fun exercise so I jumped in.

How to paint a little bee, simple and loose: 

Use a small brush,  I used a Liner #2

1. With dark gray/black, paint a round head and with the tip of your brush pull out a few antenna.
   Paint a couple dark curved stripes below the head.
2. In between the stripes add yellow paint and allow it to touch and blend with the other areas.
3. Pull out the wings from the wet paint on each side of the bee. Add a little more gray color at the top of the wing. Use a damp brush to blend out the wings to keep them soft and delicate.
4. Bump up the color by adding more yellow and gray/black where needed.

 

You can also switch things up and paint a few bees with different shades of yellow and gold, or try using a different gray mix. There are so many possibilities. 🙂

My little bee and flower study was a great way to have fun and try new things. I was able to experiment with how much water to use, when to blend colors, and try different  shapes and color combinations.

I love the freedom to just play and experiment without worry. It is a great way to build skills and enjoy the painting process. I highly recommend taking some time to play.

Flowers and Bees  – 6 x 9 inch

I hope you are inspired to create art and do what you love. Thank you for stopping by and following along. Until next time share a smile and spread kindness all around.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

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PattyAnneArt

Cityscape watercolor

A landscape practice and a few lessons learned.

Happy Sunday! 🙂

As I started working on this painting I quickly realized that things weren’t going as planned. When I dropped color on my damp watercolor paper I could see that my timing was off. My plan was to create distant trees but that was not what was happening. I was disappointed at first but continued on and did not fight it.

Lesson learned: Go with the flow and allow the painting to guide you.

Chilly Cityscape  9 x 12 inch watercolor

I continued dropping in color and resisted the urge to fix things.

Stepping back I could see an unexpected cityscape with buildings and trees. What a happy surprise. Things didn’t go as initially planned but that’s ok. I learned a lot from this exercise and in the end I love the cityscape painting that resulted.

Lesson learned: Watercolor sometimes delivers a happy surprise.

I plan on keeping this painting near my desk as a reminder of these important lessons. 🙂

I hope you are inspired to create art and do what you love. Thank you for stopping by and following along. Until next time, share a smile and have a great week.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

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PattyAnneArt