For World Watercolor Month, Hahnemuhle sent a bunch of the Ambassadors a little care package with a bookmark kit – which is perfect for me since I’m making lots of bookmarks this month! (For the fundraiser. If you’ve missed that, go see more info here!) We appreciate their support in getting the word out about ICAF!
The kit came with a pad of watercolor bookmark paper, three half-pans of Schminke watercolors, and a DaVinci brush.
Tutorial: Keep tiny watercolor flowers bright on a background
Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!
The pad is a different size than I’m making to fit the sleeves I bought – but I can trim these down easily. But for the demo I worked at full size.
The paper worked nicely – though supersoft papers aren’t always my jam. I do a lot more fussing around and soft papers can get a little pilly with overworking, so I did have one spot that pulled up while removing the masking fluid. But other than that – no warping from the paper at all. You might be able to paint directly on the pad without warping? If you’re not splashing on gobs of water, I bet that would work out great.
The paints and brush
Let’s talk about that teeny tiny brush first – it’s a DaVinci, one of my fave brands, and a synthetic. It worked fully as expected, it achieved all those tiny floral details…..except my hands are too big for that tiny brush, I think! I did try putting it into a pencil extender – and if you try that you’ll likely have to put some tape on it too, since the handle isn’t as thick as a pencil.
While the brush can make lovely flower petal marks and points very nicely – it doesn’t do much to add large washes. I was trying to ONLY use the kit, but would recommend pairing it with your other brushes.
The Schminke paints were interesting. Lemon Yellow (cool) Helio Cerulean (cool) and Cad Red Light (warm) was an interesting choice – I wasn’t able to make a nice purple from these since the red was so warm. to make a warm green you can add a dot of the red to a cool green mix, though, so that’s a nice option if only having three colors.
I’ll have to paint more with these to decide if I like them. They felt more….chalky? Creamy? I’m not sure the word for it, but they reminded me more of Gansai Tambi than regular watercolors. Maybe those who use Schminke can weigh in and make some suggestions for me! I’ll try them with my other normal supplies and see what they can do.
Subscribe to receive blog posts by email:
The redo!
I spent a little time revamping the red flowers, making them more flower-shaped in many cases, bigger in most, and collecting some in groupings. I think the scale helped make them not look so much the same size as the daisies. I mixed the red, blue, and yellow together to make a dark center color. And got out some white gouache to add tinier flower dots all over, which I think made me happiest of all.
So what do you think? Did I ruin it? Or nah?
Watercolor bookmarks
The Wednesday Zoom calls have been fun so far – an hour each, lots of painting going on! If you missed out on them, or if you know you’ll be missing a future one, then hop over to the class and sign up. This month, your entire $25 goes to ICAF – I’m covering the Paypal fees myself! So you’re doing a good deed AND getting some watercolor instruction you’ll be able to learn from for years to come as you revisit the lessons!
It’s Earth Day week…so I’ll be playing with things that grow all week long here and on social media! Be sure to follow along for some crazy ideas.
Before we start….there’s a new class and digi stamps!
It’s spring….let’s do some coloring of flowers! I just launched a brand new Realistic Flowers Class — in colored pencil this time (last month was the Copic class with different flowers). If you only need the images and not the class, check out the Flower printables to color! (Should you accidentally buy the images then decide to take the class, just email and I’ll refund the digistamps fee.)
The simplest – two color tulips, two color greens!
The colors:
Wreath #2
I used Polychromos pencils for this one….
Colors used:
Wreath #3
A little more expressive and loose! Colors are listed in the supply list below.
Inspiration collections of flowers
These pages each have dozens of ideas for florals – if you’re in need of inspiration, have at it!
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
It’s been a great week filled with watercolor flowers–I’ve seen some of you playing along, hooray! Today I’ve got a beautiful planter in some purples I was testing – and a NEW WATERCOLOR CLASS! Whee!
I’ve not been a fan of purple as a color generally…but since I was going to be working on a flower class, I decided to do a little personal deep dive – and found Mom’s Cotman (W/N student grade) Winsor Violet, aka Dioxazine Violet. Buying that led me to being persuaded to pick up some M Graham too. Because, what’s testing without a head-to-head? I haven’t decided on which or either – I don’t think they’ll land in my Big Palette since they’re SO staining. But, I do like some things about the M Graham – it’s lovely for shadows in greens!
The brushes shown here are a Silver Black Velvet Round #6, Round #8 and a Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Round 8. My fave Winsor and Newton seems so hard for people to find; this DaVinci is pretty close, so I’m going to try to change my recommendation to that for folks who want to splurge on a fancy brush.
Postcards
These Etchr postcards were on my wishlist for a while now – I had been thinking of a 30days watercolor class, and how perfect postcards might be for a format. But…..I’ll whisper quietly here that Etchr approached me about becoming a teacher for them! Stay tuned for more details, we have some dates but aren’t ready to release that quite yet. The postcards – not shared at their request, I bought them myself, worked out fine for the class; postcards will never be made with my favorite Arches or the like, because, well, who’s gonna put that in the mail? So these are thinner than regular good watercolor paper, which reduces the texture to being very little (and this “rough” paper lover is looking askance at it!)….but I was delighted to see a number of techniques still work on it just fine. Especially if you remember it’s a postcard – not meant for being an epic watercolor painting. Great for learning!
A peek at the textures…
This is (mostly) the style that’ll be taught in the 30 Days class – small flowers, a little bit of scene/background with flowers as the focus. Some will be loose and splashy, others tighter – all to give you lots of ideas that you can take or leave in your watercolor journey.
30 Days to More Confident Watercolor Sketching
New class alert! Intermediate students, have fun with flowers – and scene elements in this new class!
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
Watercolors used:
Winsor & Newton Winsor Violet (Dioxazine Violet) Amazon •Blick
It’s been a minute since I had my Art Impressions watercolor stamps out – so let’s do it! But with a “Deep Dive” twist – how many different flowers can I make from just ONE stamp? And then replicate them in regular watercolor?
ON SALE FEB 2022! If stamped watercolor intrigues you, check out one of the Stamped Watercolor classes! They’re on sale this month….as well as Watercolor Jumpstart, if you’re looking to get started with the basics of painting without stamps! And I haven’t forgotten my Copic friends, the Wildflower classes are on sale too. Happy spring! See all sale classes here, they change each month!
This is the stamp used for all the flowers I’ll show today – yes this one little leafy guy!
Video
Watch the video below or click HERE to see it in HD on YouTube. Note that this is a long video; I divided it into chapters (listed on YT) that you can navigate by timestamp or just tap through the scroll bar at the bottom of the video while it’s playing.
Lavender
On the left, the stamped version, on the right – painted. Always remember to lighten colors before they dry to get the best “lifting.”
Astilbe
Fat-shaped lavender, eh? Very similar technique, just give them a wider belly. What other flowers could you create like these?
Carnations
If anyone knows if this IS a Calyx (pronunciation?) do let me know, ha! I do my research for visual cues but on the science I’m not always on target. The “fugitive” color Opera Pink was used for the watercolor version on the right – and…it WILL disappear in the light. If you just love the color – protect it by putting it inside a scrapbook or something that stays closed. Maybe make a bookmark!
Thistle
Thistle is included also in one of my Copic Wildflower classes. They might be prickly but oh so fun to color and paint! Let the pink layer dry before adding the purple so the thistly prickles stay crisp on top.
Wisteria
These last two don’t come across as well on a 2″ x 2″ square – they would look perfect on an arbor or draped on a fence. Stay tuned to my social media this week and I’ll give that a try.
Morning Glory
These are white flowers, so had to be negatively painted – painting the area AROUND the flower rather than the flower itself! Be sure to come back Friday to see how a different kind of negative painting creates a gorgeous floral planter.
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
Today I am tickled to show you a really simple way to make a stunning 5″ x 7″ flower card – and even though I added some “real” watercolor treats, you can do this with just stamp inks!
Tutorial: Inked Watercolor Lilacs (easy)
I found that Catherine Pooler inks work well for this technique; they do melt out as watercolor, but they don’t “fall apart” (ie wash out) the way sometimes Distress Inks do. But if distress inks are whatcha got, give it a try too, just be careful how much water you add.
Look at all that luscious purple! I did add some blue to it as you saw but its really pretty with just the purple ink. For the green leaves you can also add some green inks – but I don’t have much green ink selection! I used Sage to stamp half the sentiment, and I was wishing I had a stronger green.
Such simple supplies to make such a stunning card, eh?
Need more inspiration for spring flowers? Check out this huge post with lots of tutorials and ideas:
When a beautiful floral stamp set calls itself “Vintage Garden”…I felt the need to try for a vintage look. And did it with (mostly) three colors – a red, yellow, and blue!
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
As I grow in my watercoloring, I’ve been trying to pare down my tools – I find that the more I challenge myself not to use EVERYthing in my palette, I get more creative and come up with some beautiful colors that I mix myself!
Video
I chose a Yellow Ochre, Paynes Blue Gray, and permanent Alizarin Crimson for my red-yellow-blue adventure today, and I think it worked!
Buying the stamp set was easy – lots of flowers with different shapes made me happy. There are sets that have a bunch of different stamps of the same flower – but being able to paint different petal shapes is much more interesting to me as an artist.
The card shown in the video has a light greyish background made from a bunch of the palette leftovers, mixed with water:
I also tried the same with a more cream color in the background, and swapped out colors on some flowers.
And here I limited the palette just a little more, not using the Crimson – but used the Transparent Red Oxide for my ‘red” in the trio. The background color was mixed thicker so it came out darker.
While I had the stamps in my MISTI, I also inked them up for a slimline card – it took me many many hours, but is very pretty too! I did record one flower, and it’s on Instagram HERE and Facebook HERE.
If you’re interested in MORE watercolor flowers, last week I finally went through a whole bunch of my watercolor flower series from over the years. There are some that have stamps no longer available, but I’ve tried to suggest other sets you might have that would work well for each technique!
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
