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When I added too much detail with the inking on one of the postcard series I chose to repaint it for the set.
So I had a leftover painting and turned this version into a card.
It doesn't look too bad on its own but it was way too busy to fit in with the other finished pieces.
Ddd
Last fall I started a mini-class with Art-Classes.com on using watercolor markers (I used Tombow) and ink to create travel sketches. In the class the projects were all National Parks but I didn't want to do the same.
I did a lot of research to come up with views of my favorite places locally and titled the project "Postcards From Oregon".
All of the pieces of Arches Cold-Pressed Watercolor paper were cut to the size of a postcard before I began.
I started this project in October 2022 and completed the last of 16 paintings today - 4 months later.
Here they are in order of completion.
Columbia River Gorge
Crater Lake National Park
Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area
Portland Japanese Garden
Yaquina Bay Lighthouse
Mt Hood
Multnomah Falls
Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach
Painted Hills
Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden
International Rose Test Garden
Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm
Vinyards of the Willamette Valley
Silver Falls State Park
Hood River Valley Fruit Loop
Wallowa Lake
Whew! What a ride.
I used 12 of these images to create custom calendars for family members before the series was complete.
Ddd
Every now and then I run across something that triggers an idea in my head for a project I want to make. I cannot remember where this idea came from.
I rewetted dried paint mixes from my watercolor pallete and used them to make a grid of colored boxes. When they were dry, I used fine-line marker to draw various plant shapes onto them.
I cut and mounted this piece to a card base and then used gold gel pen to add highlights to the leaves.
Here's a better view of the gold highlights.
Ddd
I have so much enjoyed the challenge of doing watercolor painting every day this month. I did work ahead so I could fit it all in and still leae this weekend free for another project.
So here are the final 6 paintings.
Day 26 - Prompt YELLOW
I liked the idea of a sunflower to go with this verse because they lift their faces and track the sun across the sky. I watched a painting video on YouTube one day and then painted this from memory the next.
These birdhouses are styled after wonky houses developed by Joanne Fink.
Day 28 - Prompt CURIOUS
I havehad this painting in mind to do for a long time but it was really hard to find a reference photo that would match my vision. I really wanted the tippy-toes and the pose facing away. I finally found a vintage photo that was a good model, even tho it was black-and-white.
I used watercolor pencils for this. Haven't used them for a LONG time and had to make myself a little color chart for reference to show what they looked like when wetted.
Day 29 - Prompt ENDURING
I think raccoons are adorable! I wanted to challenge myself to do something with fur. I used the watercolor pencils again.
I did a lot of color blending before applying water brush to blend. I added shading and detailing with black ink and then finished with a white gel pen for highlights.
Day 30 - Prompt COMPASSION
Another personal challenge - paint realistic water. I decided to go entirely monochromatic with this so that the shading rather than color was the defining element. I used only water and Payne's Gray paint.
I worked from a painting I found on Pinterest. I did a little detail work with white gel pen.
Day 31 - Prompt FLOURISH
No flourishes on this! But the word is in the verse which also refers to palm trees.
I used some new brush watercolor markers to stamp two different palm branches in various greens. I added a second green to each branch with watercolor pencil before blending with a water brush.
I made marks with a waterolor pencil in the background and blended them out with water. Then I wetted the whole background and dried with a heat tool. I then outlined every branch with fine black marker.
I used the watercolor brush markers to letter the verse on vellum and mounted that over the illustration.
And there you have it - 31 greeting cards using watercolor paint, watercolor pencils and/or watercolor brush markers. All contain scriptures and were triggered by the prompts provided by Sandy Allnock for World Watercolor Month 2018.
Ddd
#wwcm2018
If I continue to do 2 paintings a day, I will finish this project up on Wednesday and not delay my other project at all! Sounds like a plan to me.
Day 22 - Prompt: DEEP
I am taking an online class on colored pencil drawing right now as well. The students taking all of this instructor's are sharing their work on the same Facebook page. Well, those taking a Copic marker class have been showing their underwater scenes so I printed out some reference photos from Pinterest and used my watercolors to mimic what the marker people were doing. It was perfect for the prompt for 'deep'.
Day 23 - Prompt: DANGER
I drew these combat boots from a photo by using a grid transfer system. The grid on the photo was drawn at 1/2 inch increments and the grid on the watercolor paper was drawn at 3/8 inch. By going square by square on the grid and drawing the lines where they appeared in each one I soon had a perfect rendition of the boots (except for the laces which I simplified considerably). Not a lot of complicated painting on this one - a base flat wash of color, dried, added a second wash for shadows.
Day 24 - Prompt: JOYFUL
I wanted to experiment with layered washes to show semi-transparent objects. I drew balloons because they are joy filled!
Day 25 - Prompt: GIANT
Last for today. I couldn't think of n illustration for Giant and had a hard time coming up with a verse too. I went with this one because it tells me that my God is BIG. The art is all in the lettering.
Six more pictures to paint....
Ddd
Seems these entries are coming one on top of another. I'm doing two a day still as I have something coming up at the end of the month and don't want to be caught short.
Day 18 - Prompt: SCALE
I decided to go with fish scales for this prompt and painted the 5 loaves and 2 fish. I just by chance happened upon the scripture in Job 5:9
Day 19 - Prompt: PATIENT
I painted this one from a picture found on Pinterest and I've decided I want this place for my very own.
Day 20 - Prompt: WARM
Warm colors; warm sand; warm tropical air - yes please
Day 21 - Prompt: STRETCH
I've been seeing other people try a technique for painting galaxies that uses rubbing alcohol sprayed on wet watercolor paint. I took it up a notch by sprinkling with table salt after it was partially dry.
I am having SO much fun getting back into watercolor painting and trying out new techniques to get the result I want on each one.
Ddd
Now that I'm back from my short vacation it is time to catch up with the watercolor paintings for World Watercolor Month. I actually did the sketches for these while I was away so it was quicker to get on track here at home.
Day 15 - Prompt: REPEAT
I used a glitter gel pen over the top of my lettering. The wings and tops of the heads got a line of glitter as well for some shine.
Day 16 - Prompt: GENEROUS
I started out with the concept "if you as fathers know how to give good gifts to your children..." but when I had the gifts done I switched it up to represent giving to others.
Day 17 - Prompt: BLUE
I love this scripture and felt the theme of 'blue' represented sadness and heartache that led to tears. So I used my own hand as a model for one pouring tears into a blue bottle.
Challenge to paint daily with watercolors continues wo the end of the month.
Ddd
I found I was not going to have time to paint for a few days this month so I've beed doubling up and doing two a day for a few days to bank the paintings. I realize that kind of defeats the 'paint every day' spirit of the challenge but at the end of the month I will still have 31 paintings, so I'm good with that.
I had a bunch of watercolor papers that I had gotten as sample packs from two vendors years and years ago (maybe 20?). So I've been cutting them down into the 5x7 size I've been using for this series. Some are thick, soe thin, some smooth, some textured, some have sizing and some do not. I just grab whatever is on the top of the pile and figure out the best way to paint on that particular paper as I go.
Day 7 - Prompt: PINK
Well, I think I got the 'pink' theme down well enough. The flowers are a rubber stamp imprinted with a very light ink. This technique is called no-line watercolor because the stamp ink disappears into the water and paint.
Day 8 - Prompt: SWEET
The background of this is made with bubble wrap! You wet the paper, put waterbased stamp ink on the bubble wrap and press it to the paper. It spreads out into the wet paper. I brushed over it with very light watercolor paint to blend and let it dry then drew in the honeycomb lines. More paint went over the background areas. I used a glue stick to adhere flecks of gold foil randomly and painted two bees.
Day 9 - Prompt: LIGHT
Not my favorite but I ran out of ideas on how to make it look like I wanted. In case you can't tell, it is supposed to be a shaft of light coming from between dark clouds.
Day 10 - Prompt: CLEAR
The three big challenges I've always had with painting are 'metal', 'water' and 'glass'. I do believe this is the first time I have had success in painting glass!
Day 11 - Prompt: ROW
The very next day I had a success at painting water! Woo Hoo! Two in a row.
Day 12 - Prompt: ELEGANT
If you've been around long at all, you'll probably recognize this hummingbird as my handcarved rubber stamp. I added stamped magnolia blooms and then had to draw in a couple to fill in. This was done in the style of no-line watercolor.
Day 13 - Prompt: DOOR
Well, look here! I've successfully painted metal. My big three bugaboos can go hang out somewhere else. I can do this! Now 'shiny' metal may be an entirely different story.
Day 14 - Prompt: STRONG
I took the prompt and added 'COFFEE' to it! Although this illustration looks like a rubber stampI actually hand drew the whole thing from scratch and used the watercolors to bring it to life.
Not quite halfway through the assignment. I'll do a couple more and then take a break for my other scheduled activity before posting.
Ddd
I have another three waterolor paintings completed for this challenge. Still finding it a challenge to figure out what to paint. After that part the painting has been easy so far.
Day 4 - Prompt LOYAL
I didn't use a scripture on this card, but a quote.
Day 5 - Prompt CIRCLE
The roses on this card are my own handcarved rubber stamp. The lettering is gold gel pen.
Day 6 - Prompt YOUNG
I went with sprouts as my reference to the prompt. I can listen to one disc of an audiobook while painting one card.
Postings will continue every few days.
Ddd
I signed on to a challenge to do watercolor painting every day for the month of July. A whole three days and I'm still on track! We'll see how long that lasts while I have some time away on a couple of weekends.
So far, I think the biggest challenge has been coming up with bible ideas related to the word prompts.
Day 1 - Prompt STAR
I went with a night sky in which I used salt to create random white spaces. After this was dry, I brushed away the salt and added little yellow dots to many of these spaces for stars.
After painting a grassy field to do the lettering on, I added gold glittery gel pen to just a few of the yellow dots.
Day 2 - Prompt VISION
I used my own glasses as a model for this painting. But I had to take a picture of them to work from because, with them off, I couldn't see to draw or paint them.
Day 3 - Prompt RED
I don't know why it took me so long to make the mental connection between 'red' and 'rubies'. I had been wanting to draw or paint some gemstones for a while now so this was a great time to do it.
I found a blog that gave some tips on painting gems in watercolor and used those suggestions to great effect.
It wasn't until I got these three cards lined up together that I realized that I had used the same layout for all of them.
I have been using lettering styles from the Lettering Lodge on these.
Ddd
If you know art supplies you've probaably heard of Gelatos which are water soluble pigment in a stick form. They come in a holder that looks like a lipstick tube so you can hold it and smear/scribble it on the paper.
However, the ones I have are NOT name brand. They are some cheap version that I bought in a tourist gift shop at the coast. I used them one time, years ago, and then put them in a drawer for 'some other time'.
I couldn't remember what type of base I had used them on before but I figured, "water soluble = watercolor paper".
I made a pencil sketch using the magnolia stamp I used yesterday as a guide. Then I scribbled the crayons onto the various areas where I needed the color.
I used a flat watercolor brush to add plain water to one color area at a time and blended out the pigment. With the rough texture of the watercolor paper the wash areas (sky and ground) did not blend out smoothly.
After the whole piece was dry I went back with a permanent marker and drew in to define the outlines and sketch details. I used a bit of cross-hatching to create shadows.
I cut the image down and used colors from it to build borders and added a black peel-off sentiment sticker.
Ddd
I had another image on watercolor paper stamped with scattered straw ink. This was done with masking as the actual stamp only has one flower on it.
I continued on with the no-line watercolor technique, mixing my own greens and adding a blue wash for the sky.
I added a bit of pink to the petals and used paynes gray for shadows.
I trimmed into the blossoms to create more impact as it makes them appear larger when they won't fit in the frame.
I bordered the painting with gray and pink thenlayered it on green - picking up colors from the image.
I added a silver script sticker for text.
Ddd
Watercolor painting again...
I used a quarter sheet of watercolor paper from a pad and stamped a hummingbird/floral image using 'scattered straw' Distress Ink.
I have no green watercolor pains so have to mix these using my two blues and two yellows.
The bird has browns mixed from ochre and umberwith blue shadows.
I painted the flowers in washes of three reds as well as a purple that I mixed for shading.
I forgot how much the colors become muted when they dry. It is difficult to get vibrant tones in watercolor.
I need much more practice.
Ddd
I have been wanting to get back to watercolor paintig for some time now but have been limiting myself to painting card fronts and using stamp pad inks or markers for the 'paint'.
I decided to break out of this one step at a time so I started by switching back to true watercolors and standard brushes.
I started with watercolor paper that comes in a pad and cut a sheet into quarters. Rather than taking time to sketch something to paint I got out rubber stamps and stamped the image with 'scattered straw' Distress Ink.
For this one I used my hand carved stamps of roses.
I used the guidelines on the stamped image to decide where to do shading and worked with reds and yellows to create oranges with a bit of blue shadow. The greens were mixed as well as I have no green watercolor paints.
The background is NOT purple as this shows but if I dial that back the roses do not look as orange as they really are.
Although this ended up being sized properly for a card front, I'm not sure if will end up being used that way.
Ddd
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