Tag - Watercolors

This assignment was to add a decorative border around the subject of your choice.

The picture and video demonstration were provided for a different assignment. I didn’t use the swan picture, but I wanted to try the technique of painting something white and painting water, so I just did it in the empty corner of the ladybug page.

Another one working from a photo. Our assignment was to add a background and a border. This is one of my favorites because it reminds me of Susan Branch, one of my watercolor inspirations!

Here’s another from my watercolor class. Once again, we were working off a photo. In this assignment we were working on showing roundness and on the shadows. I will refrain from telling you all things that I see are wrong with this! It was a challenge, but I like the results well enough not to go back and mess with it. Go ahead and click the picture to see it larger.

By the way, if you’re interested in taking some online watercolor classes, the new ones are posted here: Imaginary Journeys.

I signed up for an online watercolor journaling class which started last week. It’s perfect for me because I don’t have the time to attend a workshop outside the house. We get our assignments through PDFs and videos, which is also cool because I can watch the videos while I paint and stop, rewind and replay anything I need to.

I’m going to be brave and share my assignments.

Both paintings are from photographs.

Find out more about my watercolor class and others that are offered here: Imaginary Trips

Not too long ago I was inspired by the watercolor journaling posts by Melissa Wiley: Scribbles and Bits (scroll down a bit, the watercoloring is towards the end of the post).  I followed all of her links, including one to a watercolor journaling post by Alice Cantrell.  She, in turn, linked to a great Watercolor Journaling DVD.

Did you follow all that? No?  That’s OK.  The gist of it all is that I’ve always wanted to be an artist, the kind that creates original art, not just follows the directions of someone else’s patterns.  I was completely taken in by the Watercolor Journaling DVD website, especially by the tiny little picture of Mont St. Michel .  In their site header, it’s the second picture in the top row.  Mont St. Michel is one of my most favorite places on earth.  I knew I wanted to paint like that and I felt like I might actually be able to learn.

So I ordered the DVD, watched it and was amazed.  I COULD do this! I watched it again.  I got some supplies and got started.

(Somewhere in this timeline, I’m not sure when, I also picked up the book Watercolors for the Artistically Undiscovered.  Excellent book, and I highly recommend it for anyone, children or adult, who wants to get started quick with watercolors.)

I started drawing and watercoloring anything I could think of. A little bit of nature, stuff sitting out on the counter, whatever.  Here’s just a sampling out of my journal.

This is Bip’s friend Big Fat Mickey and the story of the day we got him.  Click on the picture to read the journaling easier.  Bip’s really name is smudged out to protect the innocent.

This is a map of our block, again with actual names smudged out.  You can see the dry creek behind the house, the park across the street with the black diamond sledding hill and the bluff where the coyotes howl at night.

I haven’t painted much lately.  It’s not time consuming or particularly difficult, but I don’t have all that much energy right now.  I will again soon, and I’ll paint more then.