A Peak Inside My Art Journal

Here are some of the pages I've been working on recently in my art journal.  While we were on vacation, my daughter and I did a bunch of collage making.  On the left side page below, you can see her drawing of a dog made it into my book.

Art Journaling Technique: Fingerprints with Watercolor

Here is a quick and easy art technique to paint an interesting background or to make painted papers to cut apart for collages.

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!

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Ink Drawn Girl

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New Postcards in Shop

I have a new bird postcard in my Etsy shop!  I have lots of fun artwork, collage packs and more in my shop.  Just in time for summer.... enter "SummerTime" in the coupon code box at checkout to receive 20% off your entire order.  Thanks for reading my blog!

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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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Steps of Watercolor Painting: Parakeets in Watercolor

Are you getting tired of bird paintings yet?  I used to have parakeets growing up.  I had a yellowish-greenish one and my brother had a blue one like this picture.  Don't worry, I started a few other things this week so I'll have different types of artwork to show you soon.  Would you like to see the steps I take to add layers to my watercolor paintings?  I took photographs of this parakeet painting as I added different washes of paint and fine details.

Here is the finished painting:

Here are the progression photos.  I start with a sketch from some reference photos.  Then lay down light washes of color.

Add more light washes of colors in different shades.  I use a wet paper towel to dab up areas that may have gotten too dark.

Here I have added more texture and details. The fan brush is great to use for texture and so are these wisp brushes(these aren't the exact brand that I have but they look like this) .   I use a teeny tiny brush for details.

I ended up going back into the birds with white acrylic paint because I wanted stronger highlights.

 

Then, I added some drips and splashes of paint to frame the birds.  Which do you like better.. with the drips or without?

The paints I used for this painting are: Angora Watercolor Pan Set Crayola Artista II Watercolor Set
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Oops Painting

I thought I'd show you a nice painting I was making and then the oops part of it.  I'd love to see your mistakes too!
 

I have been having so much fun painting watercolor birds, I just keep going. I wanted to paint some parakeets and I was making a really nice painting of the birds, but then I couldn't get the eyes on two of them right, so it kept smearing and now there's smudges.  Ah.. it's too bad because I love that little yellow bird.  I might just have to cut him out and do something else with him.

I'm also thinking about cropping the bird on the right off and using that as a separate picture.  I need to add feet though.

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New Watercolor Bird

 I'm having so much fun continuing my bird series.  I just finished this colorful little guy.

So I need your honest opinion.  Do you like it better with the background paint splotches or without?  Here's it before I did the background.

These are some of my favorite watercolor paints to use.

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A World of Artist Journal Pages: Book Review

I am excited to share with you the book A World of Artist Journal Pages.  It just arrived in the mail yesterday and it is thick.. just full of inspiring art pages.  And I am super excited because five of my art journal pages have been published in the book!


I put together a video flip-through to show you some of the pages of the book.  I have really low voice and my voice is even scratchier with a sore throat I have now.



Here are four of my pages that are in the book (I couldn’t find a photo of the final page.)
Soul Affirming Journal Page
Every Creation Journal Page
The Whole World Journal Page
Page with Bird and Boy



(I’m a little bummed because the scans I sent off for printing didn’t show the colors as bright as it really is in real life, but oh well!)


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Mixed Media Collage

Hello there!  I have not had a lot of time to make my own art, but I did make this art journal page with some cut outs of my old drawings and watercolor pieces.

My first graders at school also made this super cool assemblage.  Details about our process are written up on my art teacher blog.  Isn't it always a blast to glue a bunch of junk together?

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New Cards and Prints in my Etsy Shop

I wanted to let you know that I put a few new items in my Etsy shop!  Here are some of the colorful new things.

Bird Greeting Cards

The watercolor bird is also available as an 8"x10" print.

 

 Watercolor Bird Print

Artsy Watercolor Greeting Cards

There are many more colorful artworks and collage packs in my shop.  I'd love for you to stop by and visit!  The money I earn just goes back into buying art supplies and things for my art making hobby :)

Drawing a Girl in my Sketchbook

I picked up the book Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces by Jane Davenport and practiced drawing and painting some faces.  I like the technique that she shares for drawing eyes.  Looking forward to drawing more!