Watercoloring Watermelons

 Hi & Welcome here. It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I recently seen this one on doing loose sliced watermelons from Emma Jane Lefebvre called wet on wet watercolor technique Watermelon tutorial (world watercolor month day 3) on YouTube and thought that looks fun and so it was.

 I started with a piece of Arches cold press watercolor I had cut to about A6 in real life and I did not sketch these as it was pretty simple. I did get this first one without any white when the colors were done traveling and then I just started adding more around it. 

 I decided I liked all the white space and stopped here to let it dry and figured I would cut it into a border strip or something.

 When it was dry I added in some random seeds to the slices and let that dry.

 I really liked all the white space so, I decided to keep it and used a hero arts curved rectangle die to cut it out to fit on an A2 sized cardfront.

 Found an really old Tim Holtz cordinations card that has a kraft colored inside that was really close to the outer skin green color on the melons and thought good enough. The sentiment here I am thinking is from Penny Black but, I am not sure which cling set at the moment. And that's about it from me. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Cosmos

 This week Linda is sharing this video seen here on YouTube  by Leisls artistic studio that does some really loose simple Cosmo flowers. These are a fairly "new" to me flower and I've had them a couple of years now, they re-seed and the ones I have tend to be white so, I thought it was fun to see them done in Pinks. Mine are in the weedy green stage right now with no buds forming yet so, I did not go out and shoot photos of that. 

This is arches cold press in an A6 size. with some water soluble pencil marks for centers and stems tops. 

I did the wash and splatters with an 16 round brush. And walked away to let it air dry. 

 I used a smaller round brush for the petals because, this is a small piece of paper and I felt like I probably would have gotten larger petals that looked a little more real-ish with a bigger brush but, this is what it was.

And as I looked at the photo above this one I decided there were too many "buds" and not enough blooms so, after I added more darker pink to the centers I added more water to the one kitty corner left of the center flower to extend its petals out longer.

 Like so, 

 And then I started adding random greenery with some sap green. and some yellows to the center facing blooms. 

I did trim down that painted panel with an rectangle spellbinders die and I mounted it to an A7 piece of Textured Neenah Peppered Moss cardstock and then I decided it needed just a bit more paint in the crevices of the open blooms and some detailing vein lines on the petals. So, I did add that after it was on the card. I am not sure what I am going to do with this as of yet so, it has no words on it right now. If you'd like to play along with us you can find the challenge details here at SCS. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Trying a sketch

 I don't normally do the sketch challenges, my brain tends to eliminate layers from them even if I print them out at work and lay the sheet on the table. So, I thought when I seen this weeks offering that it looked simple enough I could use up something in the bin on the table. 

So I pulled out this painting from a few weeks ago that is a watercolor done with some Handmade watercolor paints that I did add more paint to it after the challenge and also some birds to the sky. and tucked it into the bin for someday.

 I cut a piece of Neenah texture green card to be a 5" square card and then found this stitched hillside die and thought it would work really well for the curve at the bottom. (this is upside down) I think its supposed to be turned the other way so the stitches end up on your finished piece but, since I was using textured cardstock with strong horizontal lines I decided to turn the die the other way so the stitching would end up on the drop piece if that makes sense. 

 I stamped that sentiment on a scrap of SU green smooth cardstock and die cut it a long time ago but, best guess is from the font its maybe from Stamping Bella. Those little black pearls are from Recollections and It was just that simple. The colors are a little off and dark on the finished card but, that is getting to be my new normal up here if I shoot something not in the first morning light. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Quick Wildflowers

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube doing very quick simple loose wildflowers. I did watch the whole video then did something kinda similar with different colors and slightly different brushes.

 The first round of paints went on with an 12 round brush. The paper was cut to about A6 ish before hand. its some cold press arches.

 When I went to find an oval brush I ended up finding this one which had a pointed tip and I decided to use it the same way she used her flat round brush for the leaves. so, they did end up a little more pointed for me that way.

 I had this MFT mod rectangle die on the table from something else so I ended up using it to trim down that panel when the paint was dry and I did add some more darker dots of color to it for contrast. The base here is some SU soft seafoam and this is A2 in real life. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. thanks for stopping by. 

Daylilies Continued

 So I did add a little more paint to the crevices of the petals on these blooms. Like so.

The colors are actually more vibrant and darker in real life, the cell phone whites a lot of that out. 

So I found this cut piece of the darkish orange ish color in the hanging file folder so, I am not sure its name but, its a pretty shade of orange actually and I ran it through an Cuttlebug fabric swatches folder ( the A7 one in the set that is kinda like puffy stitched plaid type stitches. and used the drop piece to cut the with love from the Spellbinders sentiments 3 set and then I had a scrap of the cold press watercolor paper so I cut a second sentiment to glue underneath the colored paper. I actually signed this painting too. The base here is some SU summer sun and that's about it from me. And I was not real thrilled with the colors on this camera shot either. I can't decide if its an normal aging thing or if things just do not look right to me on this laptop screen anymore ha ha. I do know I love the (huge) screens I have for my work computers and so, it does make me wonder. I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Daylilies

 Good Evening and Welcome Back, It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at SplitcoastStampers this week and I happened across this video from Ellen Crimi Trent on doing abstract looking daylilies ( its a 6 minute video) and I thought that was interesting. and then while I was watching it, they always flash other things off to the side if you scroll down they shared this one by Nan Rae. And I liked ideas from both of them. But as usual the idea of drawing the flowers was daunting so, I decided to go out side and look at mine as they are blooming, and I shot some snap shots with my cell phone catching different angles of them and when it came time to sketch I settled on this photo. 

 And I decided to just focus on that flower on the right and the one kitty corner up towards the left of it. 

This is a piece of Arches cold press watercolor paper and I did use a water soluble pencil for this. And because of that I decided to not start with the leaves. my usual thought is its easier to do the background but, I wanted it to be "fairly easy" so, I did not want to get out the masking fluid or anything like that. 

 

So I just started adding paint to them and letting them dry like so, this is first round of paint.

 I spend a bunch of time trying to do those fluttery folded over edges and I was hopeful it would look better with more layers of paint. 

And I started adding some shadows to the where the petals over lap I guess is the thought. and to me this looks like it needs Lots more shadows. 

So I started adding in some leaves to behind the blooms and stems and I still have a lot of white space going on but, this is where things stand at the moment. I really want more shadows on this and probably a few more leaves. (maybe) 

And it's nearly time for it to go live so, if I keep tinkering with this I will do another blog post later. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Lavender Farms for Dad

 So I kept adding more paint to the lavender farm painting I started last week and finished it into a Father's day card for my dad. He's a gardener so it works. 

 One thing I did every time I added paint to this was added more dots of color to the closer view of Lavender and then I added more dots of color to the flower beds around the front of the house and more color to those trees. 

 I did add more paint to the where the rows would be growing as well. 

The thing with the cell phone shots like this is it seems to wash out a little bit of the color this has. and then I do the real camera shots and I also get something not quite right where I have to tinker with the levels. The white levels. I think the actual color is somewhere between this shot and the one below as a card.

The shape of this was a little off to fit on an A7 card so I used a piece of Simon Says Stamp cream for a mat under it after letting it sit in the big shot trying to press it flat. The sentiment here is from the Clearly Besotted Message me set. I tend to like those mixed fonts ones and this set is on the smaller side so its very usable for me I guess. The base here is some Coredinations Lettuce. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well and Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a Floral Flamingo

 This week we have MariLynn for a guest hostess for the watercolor tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststamper and she has chosen this floral Flamingo from Julia Lis Art that can be seen here on YouTube. 

 So I did a simple sketch on a piece of Cold Press Arches watercolor paper and I didn't have a scale in mind when I started so, I ended up too close to the bottom and I thought OK this can be the trial one... I was not really sure what to do with the feet and so, I did consider trimming it to be more of a peek view type thing if the body turned out. 

 So I started doing some flowers with pinks and corals and orange and walked away to let it dry. The sketch was done with a water soluble pencil so, I was not worried about painting over that. 

 I ended up doing some black in the feet as well thinking there would be "toes" if they call them that. I'm not really sure. and again I walked away and just let it dry.

 So I trimmed off the excess at the top of the painted layer and then found some sparkly Stardream pink cardstock for a mat and used a Pretty Pink Posh stitched border die ( from set #4) on the edge for some interest and then used some textured Natural Royal Sundance felt cardstock for the base. The sentiment here is from the Gina K Wishing well set and it was done on some Neenah solar white some time ago. This is 5 1/2" square in real life. I cannot for the life of me remember if there is supposed to be an eye on the face or not so, I may have to go look at the video again to see what the final project looks like but, this is what I remembered so I am pretending the eye is peeking out under one of those petals haha. Okay I did not see an eye on the sample bird and I also noticed that I had filled in the space around the petals and where the tail/wing tip feathers started so, mine is a little dark in that area but, all in all its a pretty cute first try with something like this. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

 

Watercoloring a Loose Lavender Farm Scene

 Hello & Welcome here, this week Linda is sharing a video tutorial on doing a Lavender farm scene. You can see this video here on YouTube. 

I did sketch this scene real loose on some cold press Arches watercolor paper with a water soluble pencil. ( because, that is what is on the table with my brushes) and I knew seeing how wet the paper was in the video I would have to do it from memory like usual so, I did not do a lot of details with it.)

 like so

 This is my first layers of paint while it was wet and I did try to keep the house and those trees near it dry. I also had started out with a regular round brush and remembered that they used an Mop style brush and I did use mine ( my smallest DaVinci 1) and my inner control freak was screaming and it holds an enormous amount of water in that brush.. so, one of the bristles fell into the paint and I haha chased it around with a sharp poking tool on the table and left some pretty big scratches into that paint and then added more to make it look more intentional.

 So, I decided to walk away and let it dry and this is what I came back to.

So I added more paint to the "road" and the horizon foliage line and added some paint to the mountains and the house walls. and I walked away again. 

 

And this is how that dried. and I am debating about if I want to toss it and start over or just keep going but, its now time to load these to the gallery and I feel like it needs a lot more paint to work and I am not so sure I am going to be able to ignore the scratches. So, I am planning to add more to the fields on the right side when I get this wet again. 

 

I think this may take a few more days to finish as I will be driving all day for work tomorrow and I have not done that in a while.  If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Loose trees

 This week Suz is sharing this quick and easy video on doing very loose and wet forest scenes that can be seen here on YouTube called The Easiest way to paint watercolor trees in only 3 steps by Kristin Van Leuven. And I had recently picked up a Lighwish swatch book on Amazon (it's cotton pages) The book I started making into a swatch book years ago was some cannon? something cheap and I have given away a lot of the paint sets I had and I've only kept a few brands And so I was you know swatch swiping paint while I watched the video and I happened to have these handmade paints I found on Etsy made by Jazper Stardust a while back out at the time so, the first round of trees were done with those. (They are not smooth when dry, they have like a gritty texture to them kind of like Tim Holtz distress embossing powders is what they remind me of, that gritty texture.) ( Pretty colors though) 

I did do this on a scrap of Arches cold press watercolor paper. And I set it aside and tried it again with some Daniel Smith paints that were on a Palette here.

 

first layers of paint, it bleed everywhere so, it was kind of flat and one dimensional so, while it was damp I kept adding more pigments to it.

 I still did not get much dimension to the scene so I let them dry and eventually I did end up adding a little more paint for some shadows and on the tree trunks mainly.

 I just I am not sure what I want to do with these so, they are unfinished like this, I am thinking more trees maybe some flying birds, for sure more shadows... and so, I think the ground shadows turned out better on the one on the left. I did end up adding some DS paints over the top of the handmade paints. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS.  And that's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by.

A Start on a Vertical Landscape

 This week the Watercoloring challenge tutorial team is painting what ever they want. and I spent some time being lost down the rabbit hole at YouTube finding new artists. I landed on this one from Rachel Parker Varner where she does a tree very loose with a very long bristled brush. She name drops a bunch of Artists names during this video and so, I watched it in bits and pieces because, I googled the other names she mentions. ( and ordered some of those brushes while I was at it, they are supposed to be here Today haha) I then seen this one from John Lovett I loved the colors and the detail with the softness, at the very end he puts on some may be white gouache and brushes it mostly away to soften those edges like doing a Vignette with your photo processing is the way my brain translated it. 

But, the very best video I stumbled across is this one from the American Watercolor Society seen here. By Thomas W. Schaller. This is so interesting and informative and just made sense to me the whole time he is painting. He is someone that I really feel like I was learning all kinds of things. but, one thing that stood out for me right in the beginning was the use of gravity for his painting and the whole paint the whole background with a curved wash. ( by the time I started mine I think I had not enough paint to it and I forgot a few colors) but, I had also started with a piece of cheap paper to just try it because, that was what the original person's video was, if you are not wrecking cheap paper as often as possible how can you know what works when and where? 

But back to the last video. He uses flat brushes to do his building shapes and I could not remember if I have flat brushes. ( I know I have a couple of either 3/4' or 1" ones for doing washes but, I didn't think I had any tiny ones. ) 

Which lead to me going to the jar and looking at the shapes of brushes I have collected since we started this watercoloring weekly challenge at SCS. (not that I started it but, I have played along since almost the beginning.) It's something my mama used to ask me all the time. Did you watercolor it? and I always said no for many years, to me it was only something "real" artists did. ( her mama's gpa was an oil painter) In the back of my mind the fact that I am coloring other peoples art ( stamped images) did not make me an artist. true story. Anyways that's a whole 'nother topic. I am trying to work on that thought and squelch it like a bug. So, I took another shot looking down so that if I were tempted to buy more brushes I could zoom in and see sizes on these.

And I thought OK, there are some smaller almost flat brushes here. ( they say they are spin top ones on the handle but, I think I may be able to use them like he did for dry brushing texture shapes type of a thought) which lead me to looking at my paint drawer. I took 90% of the cheap paints out, the colors are not me, too bright and too opaque and I do not find joy using them. I kept some of the prima sets and some of the shimmer sets but, the ones I started with are all in my re-gift them box.

 And I found all these dot cards in there. So, after this was shot I spent some time actually wetting them so I could see the colors better than what they came in like. not dramatically different but, a little bit. I am debating adding Naples Yellow and possibly Indian Yellow to my pile but, really yellow is not my favorite color to play with it's either hard to see or garishly bright. and I shy away from bold bright colors. 

And I started running out of time to actually PAINT something so, I started with this Artist Loft paper cut to A7 taped to a board so I could use the gravity idea. and I did a curved wash of colors all the way down it. I did have the board in my hand a lot and I think I had not quite enough paint and water but, I did do this. 

 The colors are barely there. but, I started with a yellow and then went to a coral, a red, a purple and then cobalt blue. so, I don't see the colors that well and I just decided to keep going as it was a little wet and it was propped up on the palette for a tiny bit of gravity.

 I don't very often do too many vertical scenes and I like painting trees so, I started with that in the middle of the sheet. the cheap paper was mostly leaning dry when I did that. 

And I dragged some of the blue down under the trees thinking snow. that there needs to be more life in it. maybe even a snowman haha. but, about this time I found out that my husbands hunting buddy was found in his home and this is as far as I got yesterday. His family does not live in this state and they rely on my husband to do all the things. 

 So, I don't have a "thing" to post in the gallery and I may be off line the next few days. We will see how it goes. its still part of that one day at a time deal. Last week was the anniversary of my mama's passing and There is not a day that goes by where I don't think she would have loved this when I see something or think some fairly snarky thought. If you read all that sorry, I know I ramble. I hope you are doing well and Thanks for stopping by. 

So, I could not sleep and I came upstairs to see what it looked like, ( it's still shy of 6 am here and the sun does not come up for a while) 

And this is what I found. When I tape paper ( it can be Arches Cotton, it can be cheap paper it does not matter) If I use this gorilla "delicate surface" masking tape to tape it to a piece of stiff chipboard. it will curl as it dries. So, I don't know if its the board or the tape but, I do not have good luck with these things not curling. I am still thinking about what to add to this scene next. Just thought I would add this is as something to remember to look for. supplies that maybe work better for taping the paper down.