Showing posts with label Watercolor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Watercolor. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Watercolor Journaling, Part 2

In my last post, Watercolor Journaling, Part 1, I wrote, "It is all about timing and developing a feel for how much water is in the paint, on the brush, and on the paper.  The water on the paper is continually drying as you are painting unless you are adding more and more water.  Don’t do that!  Try to add less and less water as the paint dries.  See what happens!"  I am hoping that you practiced this and are beginning to see how the relationship between the paper drying, the amount of water in your brush, and the amount of water in your watercolor paint.  It is all so fun to play and discover the subtleties of watercolors! 

More tips for watercolor journaling:
1.      Continue to build up layers and layers of watercolor paint, letting each layer dry before painting the next.  Another word for this is glazing.  Applying a glaze on top of the same color darkens the value. The more glazes you add, the darker the value will become. 
2.     You can also glaze with a different color than what you started with.  Play with glazing the same colors over each other or choose a different color.
3.     Continue painting with glazes until you are done. 
Example of glazing colors on top of each other

 Hint:  Don’t spend a lot of time fussing over the part you are glazing.  This will start to dissolve the dried layers underneath and will cause the layers to mix, creating mud, instead of laying on top of each other.  


Tuesday, May 16, 2017

10 Tips in 10 Days - Free EBook from Interweave Press

Here are some fun journaling tips from Interweave Press and Cloth Paper Scissors.  This free ebook features my article on Travel Journals, Using Maps as a Starting Point.  


Art journaling is a way to express yourself through writing and art at the same time.  This creative process pulls together a variety of materials to create mixed-media art.  In this free ebook you will get art journaling tips, including how to make a travel journal from maps, how to make an art journal instages, and how to choose the right tools for your art journal adventures!


Monday, May 8, 2017

10 Tips in 10 Days - Watercolor, French Vermilion

Here is my new favorite color - French Vermilion by Sennelier Watercolor.


Vermilion is a dazzling red pigment originally made from a powdered volcanic mineral – cinnabar.  It was used in the art and decoration of Ancient Rome, in the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, Renaissance paintings and in Chinese lacquerware.  I love it for its brightness and vividness.   It is great for painting red poppies!
Check out my TEACHING SCHEDULE!
Up-close of Poppies




Thursday, January 26, 2017

Playing with my Muse and Color

Introducing Pixie Star!  She showed up to help me along in my creative endeavors....

Ooh!
 Pixie Star loves being surrounded by color!

Pixee Star and I have been playing around with my color palette.  Those of you who know me, know that I am obsessed with color and watercolor is my favorite medium.  In preparing for my All About Color class that I am teaching in my Bend, Oregon Studio, I took a closer look at the yellows on my palette.  My goal was to have the warmest yellow and the coolest yellow available.  I am happy to announce that I found a cooler yellow than I already had!  It is the Daniel Smith Lemon Yellow.  It is bright, fresh, and semi-transparent.  Next I will try using it in triad and tetrad mixes.  If I come up with something great, I will let you know!
Here are some photos from my Color Class.  There is some serious color study going on!



Wednesday, December 28, 2016

All About Color Classes in Bend, Oregon

Local Watercolor Classes 2017

ALL ABOUT COLOR
Tuesdays, January 17, 24, 31, 2017 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Using watercolor as the medium, you will learn the secrets of mixing colors to create vibrant watercolors and control those dull lifeless areas in your paintings. With a deeper understanding of the relationships between colors you will be painting with confidence!
Cost:  $90 for the three classes 
Leave me a comment if you are interested in joining or have questions about this color workshop.  There are just a few spots left!

















Thursday, September 29, 2016

Finding Inspiration to Paint, Part 4

Here is another idea to get you going.... watch a YouTube video.  There are lots of free ones by lots of artists.  I have to tell you though, some of them are really boring and the end result is not what I aspire to.  So what I do is to fast forward to see the final painting and then invest the time to watch the video if I think the painting is good.  Here are a couple of YouTube videos that are demos of how to paint...

Fast video of how I paint a field of flowers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttywat9RQDs

How to paint palm trees

Here is one where I show what supplies are needed to get started with watercolor painting.

If you find a video you like, look to the right side of the YouTube page and you will see recommendations of other similar videos to watch.  Warning!  Watch a couple then go paint!  I know that I could spend all day watching other people paint but this is to inspire you to paint!



Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Finding Inspiration to Paint

Do you ever find that it is hard to get inspired to paint?  Maybe it is just finding the time in our busy lives.  Sometimes I am so anxious to get all my chores done so that I can "go paint".  But I sit down, surrounded by all my art supplies and nothing comes to me.  I feel uninspired.  What to do!  I wanted to post a few blogs about finding inspiration...
One great thing to do is to invite a friend or a few friends over to paint with you.  Set aside time, a few hours at least, and invite some friends for a relaxing, artistic afternoon.  I set out some stencils and inks in case someone wanted to use them in their art journals.  We explored different ways to add color to our stencils.  Here are some photos of our fun afternoon....



Tuesday, April 19, 2016

More Color Studies

Our class continues to mix and mingle different colors together to see which are the best combinations.  I showed how to make fun color chickens where you start at the head of the chicken with one color and then switch to a different color at the body.  The goal is to have blended and mingled colors in the body part of the chicken using two different colors.
The younger students got very creative and started painting other animals like color horses and bunnies!






Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Demonstration on How to Paint a Field of Sunflowers, Watercolor


Here is a free demonstration on how I painted a colorful field of sunflowers in my watercolor journal.  It has as a little cabin in the back of the field.  Watch closely how I negative paint around the sunflowers to make them pop!  The video is in fast motion, set to some fun music. so it only takes three and a half minutes to watch the whole thing.  I hope you enjoy watching. If you want to join me in ITALY, painting on location, I would love to have you join my trip with Adventures in Italy, May 2016!


Painting a Field of Sunflowers in Italy

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Creating an Art Journal

Teaching in my studio in Bend, Oregon - I have been sharing one of my favorite things to do with my art journals - take them apart and reconfigure them to be more creative, artistic, and tactile!  We have been getting messy mixing acrylic products with watercolors.  We have been using ordinary office supplies and manipulating them into extraordinary journaling enhancements!  Would you like to join me in Orvieto, Italy for my Colors of Umbria: Keeping a Watercolor Journal Workshop?  We will be doing similar artistic creations in our journals as we slow down, observe and savor our time in Italy together!







Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Driving Around the French Countryside

We spent a day driving through the Southwest part of France coming across some very beautiful towns and sites.  This area of France is known for pâté de foie gras.  We saw geese throughout the countryside.  We even saw statues devoted to geese in the town of Sarlat.

















A page from my watercolor journal
A page from Helen's watercolor journal

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Fun Ideas for your Watercolor ART Journal, Part 2

Here are some more ideas for how to add interest, color and creativity to your watercolor art journal.  These are some of the things that I will do to the back of the page in my journal.


· Pre-paint with a light watercolor wash of cobalt blue, permanent rose and transparent
       yellow watercolor paints for a colorful journaling background.
· Journal your thoughts and about the area you are visiting.  Be sure to include the date.
· Journal about the area, weather, new friends and events.
· Using an archival glue stick or matte medium, glue collected vacation ephemera to your journal pages.  Overlap and connect object.
· Paint the page with black gesso before adding things.  Use white gel pens on this page.
Paint a collection - here I did a study of barns and buildings