Watercolour Paint Along - Snow Scene

This week's paint along - the last of the three week sessions.   I wasn't too happy with this one, as the canvas was still a bit too damp when I  came to paint the clouds and the "bled out" a bit.   Lots of friends like it, and whose to say the clouds shouldn't be like that!  The just make it more atmospheric!  I was pleased with the trees and the snow though.

 

"Japanese Art Journal"

I wasn't quite sure what title to call today's blog.  I ordered this little Art Journal made from Japanese handmade watercolour paper back in January.  There was a hiccup with the order with a delayed despatch, which then somehow got overlooked - so I didn't receive it until this week.   Well I had to play didn't I.  (Fortunately the demonstration was still on catch up, so I could remind myself why I had bought it and what to do! - lol!)

It came with some handmade Japanese papers too - a bit like rice papers, some japanese powdered glue and a waterbrush.

I created some leaves by wetting the paper and tearing them into shapes.   I then painted them with a couple of metallic water colours, and let them dry.  I created a background with water colours, and drew a stem with a micron pen, and then glued the leaves in place.   I added some details with some stamps and went around the edge with the micron pen.

Watercoloured Christmas Cards

Another couple of prints from the watercolour paintings I shared earlier.    Scanned and imported into Craft Artist, reduced in size and then"punched" to create an oval image.   A few people will be getting these "originals" for Christmas.

My son was so impressed when he called round, that he has asked for the original watercolour paintings so that he can have them framed for his new house ........ now that is praise indeed!

Watercolour Birthday Card

Having played with the snow scene watercolour paintings into Christmas cards, I thought I would attempt to turn one I did a while ago into a card for a pal.   (She is quite a good artist herself, so I hope she likes this.

For info this was the scan of the original painting that I did., before I reduced it to fit the aperture of the card.

An Idea Works!

I repainted one of the earlier paintings, and changed it slightly, adding a gate and some birds as well.  I then wanted to change it to fit a circular aperture on some card blanks I had.  I created a custom-sized page in Craft Artist to be slightly bigger than the aperture. 

 I scanned the painting and having imported it into Craft Artist, I resized it to fit, and then used the punch tool in the programme to punch out an image to the size of the aperture.

I got the "punching" slightly wrong for this card, although it is perfectly fine as it is.    I had another little play with adjusting the size of the "page" I was working on, and this time I got a better "punched" image:

Punched image

That was better, I have the tree in on this one; although in both cases, I managed to cut my signature off - I shall rectify that and scan it in again.   The card below was the result of this second attempt.   Now to decide whether to add a sentiment to the actual picture, or just stamp one onto the card.  I might even die-cut a frame for the aperture, but the main thing is the idea worked, and I can change it as I wish.

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More Watercolour Snow Scenes

I have attempted another couple of watercoloured snow scenes.   Not completely happy with them - mainly because the drawing pen was set a little wide for the masking fluid on the trees, but hey ho it's only paper so I can do them again.  Apart from the little booboo, I am quite pleased with them.

They were also much smaller this time, as I did them on a postcard-sized piece of watercolour paper, which is actually more difficult than painting something a bit larger.

I have two more demos to watch - so will share the results when I have done that - if I get some good results, I will sign my paintings, and possibly photocopy them and use some for Christmas card toppers.  If I can improve on the top one, I think it would make a good Christmas card, with a sentiment added.

A Watercoloured Snow Scene

Although the weather was awful this afternoon and the light wasn't good I decided to rewatch the Matthew Palmer shows on Hochanda and try and create one of the paintings he demonstrated.

So here it is my first attempt at painting a watercoloured snow scene.   I confess I am pretty pleased with the result.  I am also in love with the new Schminke aqua-shine.   It might not show up that well in the photo but in real life the snow and sky have a glisten to them.

The picture is created using just three colours, natural yellow, natural brown and natural violet.   I can't wait to try the next four demos.

Hand- painted Birthday Card

A little experiment today.   It's a friend's birthday on Christmas Eve and he is male - so as far as I am concerned one of those difficult cards.  I could have created something in Craft Artist, but I had a little inspiration, and thought I would try and paint a little scene.

I cut the canvas sheet to the size I wanted (4" square) did my little painting.  I then found a square die that was slightly larger and cut out the aperture from the card.   ()I wasn't sure how well the canvas painting would stick to the card, so I cut a piece of paper to fit the card and stuck the canvas on to that, and then stuck the piece of paper to the inside of the card front - yay it worked.  I then found a sentiment in my stash  (I do tend to forget I have these sometimes !) 

The card looks so effective in real life - the photo hasn't really done it justice ( and of course the shadow from the camera "handle" is not there either !)

Framing a Watercolour painting

You will recall that I did a few watercolour paintings the other week;  Well today I found a frame for them.

I only bought one frame, but I have five paintings so far, I intend to swap them around.   I am really pleased with how it sets the picture off.  I can't believe that I have really managed to paint something that is good enough to frame and display.  I confess it brought a little tear to my eye, when I was showing my son, as he was very complimentary, and said how proud I should be.  Great praise from my offspring!  I just wish my husband was alive to show him; but hopefully he is looking down on me and saying "well done".

I also purchased some frames for the paintings that his girls did.  Hopefully they will be as proud, when he displays their pictures for them.

Clay Modelling with the grandchildren, and a visitor's watercolour painting.

 It has been half term week, and I have had the youngest grandchildren here for a couple of days and they wanted to do watercolour painting and clay modelling - so we combined the two.   The first day was spent modelling with air dry clay.

6 yr olds apple with legs and a fairy door

Fairy door

9 year old's "Daddy & BBQ"

12 year old's mermaid on rocks.

This was all their own work (I had been hoping to do something myself, but I was too busy supervising!)  I did get to coat the boards with the texture mediums for the sea and the grass for them, so that they could dry before they got to paint them, and I helped with the initial shaping of the apple, and made suggestions for the painting of the apple.

My Wilton people molds, that I must have had for nearly 40 years came into their own for the heads and bodies, and the Fairy Door was a Sugar Buttons mold.

As I didn't dare risk them painting with acrylics, they used watercolour paints and some goache, which worked quite well  The 12 years old did use some of my metallic Posca pens for the mermaid's tail.

I think they did extremely well.

On the second day, when they were painting, their Aunt (my daughter) called in, and she wanted to try a watercolour painting.  So under my guidance (that's a joke really, as I am only just getting to grips with learning how to do it) she produced her first painting.

Misty Dawn

She wasn't too happy with it, but what a difference when we took the masking tape off - I think it is brilliant for a first effort on linen watercolour paper, with my new Matthew Palmer brushes, and just my guidance.   (At least I had a video recording of a demo to follow when I did mine!)

Watercolour Painting - Fields

This is the last one for the moment, as have now caught up with the demos on tv, with me painting along.

It seems the family are quite impressed, and I have had requests to teach eldest granddaughter, daughter and son and they of course hinted that they would need the special paint brushes too!   Looks like Christmas pressies are sorted, when the paintbrushes etc are next on special!!!!!  

Water Colouring - Lake Scene

Well I have been at it again, and am gradually working my way through the demos.

The grandchildren called in after I had just finished this one, and wanted to have a go!   So we spent the afternoon with a painting lesson.  ( A bit like the blind leading the blind, as I am still teaching myself)  The following were the product of the afternoon  Didn't they do well.

12 year old's

9 year old's

6 year old's
with a little experiment with masking fluid as she wanted waves

Watercolour Painting - Rapeseed field

Not quite so happy with this one as yesterday's, but as somebody pointed out the perspective is good.  Funnily enough the distant hills weren't supposed to be in the painting, but the paint decided to do it's own thing, so I just went with the flow so to speak.  (Sorry abut the pun)

The splatters on the rapeseed field were a bit splodgy, but it is early days.

Another attempt at watercolour painting

Well, undeterred, I tried another watercolour painting.   I like this one.   Perhaps I can teach myself to paint after all.

I am gradually rewatching the demonstrations and painting along with Matthew Palmer.   Basically it is all about learning to paint trees, although background do come into it to.

There will be another painting tomorrow.

Attempting a watercolour scene

A case of don't give up the day job .... My first attempt at a watercolour scene, using some new paintbrushes I purchased.   I obviously need a lot more practise.  At least I know what I did wrong - the paint was too wet.

A bit of water colour painting

I have always said I can't paint, well I can't draw that's a fact.   I have tried to water colour, but with not a lot of luck.   However, having watched a programme using Koh-i-noor wax pencils, I thought I would try the technique shown with my Lyra Aquacolour crayons, that I have had for years.

Oh WOW, what fun, and how simple - you scribble a rough design and then brush it with water, as you can see it worked and actually looks like something!  I decided I was a bit heavy handed with the water initially, so went around my scribbled outline of the flowers again, and worked a bit more water into it.

Even my son said it was good - heck that is praise!  Can't wait to have another play.

Watercolour Robin

 Having attempted a little landscape, I thought I would try something a bit more adventurous!   When clearing up the Christmas cards, I saved the fronts of a few that had lovely Robins on.

So here is my attempt at copying one of the images, using my Brushos.  Not perfect by any means, but at least you can see it is a Robin.

The Christmas card image on left and my attempt on right.

The traced outline with masking fluid added

I followed the "cheats" I had learned from watching Alison C Board on Hochanda.  Using Tracedown paper I traced the outline of the bird.   I then applied masking fluid around the image and on parts of the bird.  Then using various techniques with the Brushos I painted the Robin, and prayed for a reasonable result!

Painting with Brushos

Having received some Brushos for Christmas, and then watched the demos on Hochanda by Alison C Board, I decided between two of the shows to attempt one of the techniques she showed - painting trees.

Well here it is my first attempt at a water colour painting.   I own up that I cannot draw for toffee so am quietly pleased with this.  OK I can see where I can improve but for a first I have to say it's not too bad!

The trees were created using masking tape torn down the middle, and I the applied some masking fluid across the trunks and created the hills and the moon and a few stars with the fluid to.

I then painted the trees with grey and brown brushos, and using the brown and the edge of a piece of card I created the branches.

I then painted the sky (although I probably should have done this before I removed the masking tape and painted the branches!

I highlighted my hills with a little grey and when dry I removed all the masking fluid, finally using the edge of a piece of card to create the fence.

I shall be trying a lot more techniques that I learned with the Brushos - so watch this space!

Attempting Something New!

I happened to be watching some catch up programmes on HOCHANDA, and came across one on watercolour painting.  Well I will own up that I am useless at painting, and although I have water-colour paints for colouring in stamped images, I had never attempted a "painting" - well not since my school days, when I think my teacher gave up on me!

 I had some watercolour postcards in my stash, with a view to making some toppers with them, and they were the right weight so I decided to paint along with the programme.

So far so good, I also found some suitable paint brushes in my stash.   I didn't have the watercolours that they were using, but I did have some Lyra aquacolour crayons, and some Aquamarkers.

So here is my first attempt, painting along with the programme.

Landscape

I then decided to find some videos on U-tube by the same man - Matthew Palmer  (do look them up), and I attempted a second painting - a snow scene - not quite so successful, although it does look better in real life.

Snow scene

Thanks for popping by.

Proud Nanny!

Watercolured Hydrangea

I visited my three youngest granddaughters today for a bit of crafting.  I supervised the making of a christening card and a wedding card - however, you will have to wait to see those in the next couple of days as what I wanted to share with you was this watercolouring from my 5yr old granddaughter.

I bought her some Lyra Aqua Crayons for her birthday back in May, and she has patiently waited for me to show her how to use them, as her Dad said for the first time using them she had to wait for me to show her.  I also bought her some koi waterbrushes, a neat little palette with a lid for scribbling into to mix her colours and some watercolour paper, as well as printing off a few images that she could use to colour.

Well I talked her through how to get shading and to blend colours.  Her mum was thrilled as hydrangeas are her favourite flowers.

Well what can I say - she is a fast learner - and this is her very first watercoloured image - no practising - just straight in and at it.  I am so proud of her.  Wish I had had somebody to tell me how to watercolour when I was her age or even in my teens, instead of waiting to learn how to do it until my 60s!

Of course the 3 yr old also wanted to paint, and although she wasn't as neat about keeping in the lines as her sister, she learned to use the special crayons, and the great thing was there was no mess to clear up or a paintbox to wash out! LOL!  It won't be long before she catches her sister up; and heaven help me when the baby catches them up!

I can see that I shall have to save up and buy her some promarkers in the very near future, because if this is what she can achieve with water colours on Rey & Graphics paper, what is she going to achieve with promarkers once I have shown her how to use them!  (Mind you might have to hide promarkers from her Dad as he got an "A" in graphic design at school !!!!)

After she had painted this image, I showed her different effects on the water colour paper, and her Dad is going to print of some images onto that for her to try, and then she did a free-hand painting of the vase of flowers on the dining table.  Didn't take a piccie of that as it wasn't finished - but put it like this - wish I could paint like that! 

Mags