I had an old painting on my desk that I’ve wanted to do something with for a long time. I planned on adding some ink sketching to it but that never happened.
Floral watercolor base from 2020
Recently I decided to just dive in and play. I used a large brush and lots of bold color. I played with expressive brush strokes and didn’t worry about what “should be”.
Here’s a close up view of the floral
and a full view … I love all the little buds and flowers everywhere. This happy painting makes me smile. I also love that years later I turned this painting into something that I really like now.
I hope you are inspired to create art and have fun. Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!
As we head into the new year I like to think about new possibilities and what I will focus on. I don’t like resolutions but I like having goals and things to reach for.
My thoughts for a creative 2022: Keep working to improve my watercolor skills. Have fun and explore different techniques. Improve my watercolor backgrounds. Allow for more playtime in my sketchbook. Share videos and snippets of my painting process. Remember to be gentle with myself and slow down when I need to.
Watercolor Backgrounds I plan on putting more thought into backgrounds this year. Hopefully playing more with backgrounds will improve my paintings and make them more interesting.
As an example, I recently painted this lively background above with the wet on wet technique. I used a damp brush to lift off paint in some places for placement of bigger flowers.
I think playing and experimenting with backgrounds will be a lot of fun.
Here’s a photo of the final painting taken with better lighting. 😊 I added some flowers and bumped up the color. It think it looks a bit dreamy… I love that.
I hope you are inspired to create art and do what you love. What are you planning on focusing on in 2022?
I’ve been working on cleaning up my art/painting area this week. I’m trying to pack away some older work and tidy things up. I found a few simple landscapes from 2018 that I wanted to share with you today.
Happy Sunday, friends! 💗
I love the mood and the soft blue trees in this one. They look a bit frosty to me. This is painting #669. As of today I have painted close to 1500 pieces.
Even though the horizon is not straight (something I would fix today), I love the color of the distant trees. This is painting #671.
This final landscape was painted on 9 x 12 inch Arches watercolor paper. I love the blue green trees and the pretty sky. The placement and separation of trees created a nice depth that really draws me in. This is painting #668.
It’s fun to look back at my older work. I’m kind of amazed at how much painting and learning I’ve done over the last few years. I still have more cleaning to do, I wonder if I will find any more long lost paintings that will be saved from the packing box.
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 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.
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!
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!
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.
I have a beach painting to share with you today. I would love to be at the beach and am looking forward to traveling again very soon.
This painting was inspired by watercolor artist, Lois Davidson. I’ve enjoyed many of her YouTube watercolor tutorials online.
Lately I’ve been taping off the edges of my watercolor paper before I start painting. I really like the nice border it creates around the painting. Although in my photo here it appears that part of the right edge got cut off. 😉
Above is the first layer of watercolor after it dried. I was quite happy with the base. Watercolor always dries lighter than you might expect. The soft soothing colors worked well here.
Adding some nice dark grasses and detail in the foreground created some depth and warmth. I love how the little birds in the sky add some life to the painting.
One thing I’ve learned it that you should keep on playing and practicing. Although I don’t like how the water turned out in this one. The sky is just dreamy and I am in love with it.
While every painting might not be a success, that’s ok. I’m having fun and learning from each one. Paint on my friends!
Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!
I decided to try out the wax resist technique and have some interesting results to share with you.
Happy Sunday, friends! 🌼
In each of these little paintings I used a birthday candle to make marks on dry watercolor paper before painting. You can see the tiny candle that I used in the lower left landscape near the bottom.
The waxed area resists the paint and you are left with the visible white of the paper showing through. It worked well on a few of my mini paintings.
Watercolor Notes: -After making marks on the paper it’s hard to see where the wax is and how much coverage you actually have. It’s a bit of a risk but was fun to try. -The wax will remain on the paper and does not wipe off. Once it’s down, you can’t go back. -There were a few tiny wax bits left behind on top of the paper after I finished drawing/mark making with the candle. I just brushed them off the paper before I started to paint.
After playing for a while I decided to try using the technique on a bigger painting. A happy sunflower sounded like fun. 😁
Mom’s Sunflower – 9 x 12 inch watercolor
In the center of the flower I used the little candle to make some markings on the paper. The bright white area is where the wax went down. In some places I ended up with a light coverage but I think it’s rather nice.
I am super happy with my bright and splashy sunflower.
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 - Art 