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 bookmark pad

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.

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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!