I've recently been reminded of how much joy there is in painting.
Now, this feels ironic, because my WHOLE thing is finding joy in watercolor.
So I taught a class last week and one of the attendees had already purchased one of my watercolor workbooks.
She was raving about it to the other participants. By the end, I wanted to just take her with me wherever I go!
She is a first grade teacher and does NOT consider herself an artist or very creative.
But, when she saw my videos and my own work, she was intrigued to try it for herself!
She's had the workbook for a few weeks now and was so excited to share her experience with myself and others in the class.
I want to repeat a few things she mentioned…
“It's just so relaxing! I don't have to think, I just follow along and it's like a break from the busy day”.
(I didn't turn on a recorder so I'm somewhat paraphrasing)
But the overarching theme of her excitement was how painting gave her a break from the busy-ness of life.
Have you ever noticed that?
Have you experienced the sound of the world fading away as you put brush to paper?
If you haven't yet, it's time to get started :)
This week's tip:
Keep it simple. Paint a simple shape and repeat it. In this week's tutorial you'll get a chance to try just that.
Repeating a simple shape to create a group is great for many reasons.
1. It's fun and cute! For some reason, a set of nine lemons is cuter than just one.
2. It's good practice. Practice makes "perfect" as we know. Repeating the same techniques helps you hone in and feel more confident.
3. It's quick. We all know it's harder to commit to a painting session if we know it'll take a while. Quick easy paintings are easier to finish in one sitting.
This week's tutorial:
This is my most popular instagram reel and I'm not surprised. Cute little rainbow mugs are literally the best and so much fun to paint!
I'll walk you through drawing simple mug shapes then exploring color mixing as you fill them in. It's a great exercise to see watercolor do it's beautiful thing (blend and move all cool like).
Try it yourself here!
This week's tool:
You've probably heard that there's no such thing as white watercolor paint. Well that's true, but that doesn't mean there's no way to have white in your watercolor painting.
My favorite "hack" for adding white to my painting is a white gel pen!
I find these Sakura Gelly Roll pens work great, especially size 10. The ink is mostly opaque and will show up on top of the watercolor paint. I love them for adding stars to a night sky or sparkles to an ocean's surface.
Get yourself some here!
I hope you give this week's tutorial a try and keep looking for the joy that watercolor brings artists of all kinds.
Stay Creative!
-Alyssa
