Shading with watercolor

This is a little demo of how I shade with watercolors. 

First I sketch the image on watercolor paper (no gesso) with pencil. A lot of the pencil will dissolve when the watercolor goes on but I still keep it fairly light. 

 Next I paint watery color onto the heart.

 It looked a little pale so I added a bit more red. I do this quickly so it stays wet. I don't worry about being precise, the pencil lines will be less noticeable when it is dry. It gives the flower a more natural look if the petals are not all identical.

 While it is still wet I use a tissue to blot off some of the color on one corner of the heart. This is an easy way to get a highlight. 

 I add some purple for shading on the opposite side to the highlight while the paint is still wet. I let it bleed into the red without touching it again. I let it dry.

 I added yellow to the flower centers and then touched in a little brown on one side for shading. Let it dry so the next step won't bleed.

 I wanted to add a little shading around the base of the petals so first I wet each petal. I put a dot of watery purple close to the flower center on each petal. It bleeds out a little because the petal was wet. 

I painted the background quickly with a flat brush and left a lot of white showing. 

 

 I wanted to make the flowers stand out more so I added a line of purple along the underside of each petal on top of the red paint. It was a light shade because I only wanted a little bit of shading there. I also added a blue border.

I painted the ribbon with purple then added a little blue for shading near the center of the bow. I also ran a line of blue down the side of the ribbon for shading. I painted the nail with grey and added a dot of brown when it was wet. 

The final piece was finished off with graphite pencil. I outlined the heart and ribbon to make them stand out more. I also added some white pen highlights on the heart and ribbon. That is what really makes it 3D.

Art almost every day.

Ever since I signed up for my first online class two years ago I have really begun to love drawing. I do it almost everyday now. This week the challenge prompt was Fall and then we also had daily prompts as well. I couldn't think of much for Fall so I did the daily prompts most of the time.

 The first prompt was Red. I got the idea for this page from this page http://paintedthoughtsblog.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/its-monday.html 

It was in a book that arrived on the morning of the red prompt and it looked so good I had to give it a try. It is watercolor and graphite pencil.

 The next prompt was vintage. The only thing I could think of was the old sewing machine that I learnt to sew on.  I got a picture of it from google and sketched it, then painted with watercolor.

This one was for the fall/fruit prompt.  It is watercolor and a little masking fluid.

The prompt was blue so I had to try another of these ones. I really like this style of a bunch of random objects so I am thinking I may do a whole journal like that.

The prompt was to do a heart. I was going to do the flowers near the heart but somehow they ended up on the hearts and I had a string of them. I don't always know where the ideas come from.

Some more art for the challenge.

I have been keeping busy with little pages of art for the mixed media challenge I am part of. I started the week with watercolor and ended with acrylics. The topic this week was flowers and when I was looking for photos of flowers to draw I came across an article in my Better Homes and Gardens magazine that inspired me. It had lots of flowers set up in country style containers. It was exactly the sort of thing I like.

 The daffodils in the photo were actually white but I changed it so they would stand out against the background. I love painting rusty things so I put them in an old bucket. 

The water didn't turn out the way I wanted because I painted it the wrong color so when I went over it all the white sparkles disappeared. I am continually learning from my mistakes. 

My first time trying to paint a basket. It turned out better than I thought it would. 

 

This was done with acrylics.  The lavender is simply painted with 2 shades of purple and white highlights. The paler flowers were painted on then blotted off before they dried. It left a ghostly image that I liked.

 I really liked the colors in the photo so this one is the closest to the original.

This one was not from a photo. It is a different style to the more realistic images I have done this week. 

A new mixed media challenge.

I am taking part in a new challenge that goes for 30 days. It is just to make some art using the weekly prompts given. The first week was cups.

I didn't realise we were doing the same thing for the whole week so I did a large journal page for the first one, thinking I would do something different the next time.

I had already made art on this page but I didn't like it so I went over it with napkins and then painted on that textured surface. I sketched out the cups on some printer paper and then used that as a pattern to cut out the cups from different scrapbook papers. After I glued them to the page I used coloured pencils to shade them. The quote was done with 2 markers, one for shading. 

 I found these watercolor cards in my stash and can't even remember what I bought them for. I am going to use them for this challenge. This mug is one of the Jane Davenport Hug Mugs that I have. I picked the panda because I thought it would be the easiest to copy.

I decided to have fun and do some egg cups for this one. 

 

 I surprised myself with this painting.  I usually sketch while I watch tv at night. It is lucky you can't see all the erasing I had to do to get this to look right. Practice really does make perfect, lol.

I was given this recipe during the week on a game site that I am a member of. I haven't tried the recipe yet. I am having trouble finding angel cake mix here in Australia. 

Inspired by some of the other artists who have been putting animals in their cups. I went with a cute bunny. In one of the online classes we learned that putting a human eye on an animal makes it look whimsical and cute. I think I agree. 

My final cup for the week came out of my head. I couldn't get the teapot right so I googled it. Looking at it now I think the spout should be lower on the pot but it doesn't really matter.

Next week the prompt is flowers. I am going to have fun with this.