Masking with Watercolor

Hi friends!  Today's blogpost is a cross-post.  This week I was a guest blogger on Marit's Paper World for her Quirky Dutch Summer series.  In case you missed it, I thought I would share it here as well.

Masking with Watercolor

Watercolor is my favorite art medium to use, because I love how the colors can flow and blend together. The element of surprise is always a part of painting with watercolors because often the paint will move in ways you didn’t quite expect. As you use watercolors more, you can begin to predict and control the paints better. Today I am going to show you one of my favorite watercolor techniques to get shapes with crisp edges.

Guest Blog Post for Quirky Dutch Summer

Hi to anyone who has stopped over here from the Quirky Dutch Summer series at Marit's blog.  I'm glad you came to visit me here.  Marit has been a blogging friend for many years and we connected more when she started her magazine called Featuring and I became a writer/contributing editor for her publication.  The Quirky Dutch Summer series will have lots of prompts and technique tutorials throughout the summer, so be sure to check it out.  It's not just for Dutch artists!

I am a guest blogger for her series today!  The technique I shared is about using contact paper to mask off shapes while using watercolor paints.  You can see the steps I used to make this artwork:

As a thank you for reading my blog, enter "SummerTime" in the coupon code box at the checkout of my Etsy shop to receive 20% off your entire order.  I have greeting cards, postcards, prints and collage packs.  Thanks for reading my blog!

Elephant Watercolor Painting & a Quirky Dutch Summer

Hi friends!  I finished another watercolor painting this week and it is not of a bird!  I really stretched myself with this one. :)  One of my dear friends was at my house and was talking about some of my watercolor paintings on the wall.  She said she loved elephants and would love a painting of an elephant.  I decided I would give it a try!  Now, since I love bright colors so much, I couldn't just paint a gray elephant.  I found some pictures of decorated Indian elephants and came up with this design.  It's not perfect, but I'm proud of how it turned out.

I'm excited to announce that I'm going to be a part of Another Quirky Dutch Summer and I'll be writing a Guest Artist blog post. Mine will be posted mid-June.  I was so honored that she asked me to participate!  You probably didn't know this, but I am 50% Dutch!  My mom's family is 100% Dutch.  I don't know when our ancestors came to the US but it was quite awhile ago.  Anyways, the series will have all kinds of fun prompts and techniques and you can play along with all of us.  There is a Facebook group too you can join to share your artwork.

Other than that, I am just trying to finish up the end of our school year!  Yikes!  Lots of report card writing in progress.

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