Art Lesson: Drippy Watercolors

Hi there!

I decided it was time to get these pictures of the bee picture on here.

I wanted to do a bit of experimenting with letting the watercolors be bold, loose, drip down the canvas.

Here is one I loved of a butterfly from a shop on Etsy by Dean Crouser.

www.etsy.com:butterfly-watercolor-print-by-dean

Also, the beautiful, colorful artwork of Slaveyka Aladjova which can viewed at her esty shop here:

www.etsy.com:SlaviART

(I think the lion, horse heads, cow, and rooster are my favorites.  FANTASTIC!)

I wanted so much to create a beautiful piece like these, so I used the bee sketch that I partially outlined with ink, took a picture of it,

and then printed up 4 or 5 copies of it onto cardstock paper to experiment before I completed the large canvas.

I started by using masking fluid on the areas I wanted to keep lighter or white.

On my first try, I was very careful and conservative and basically just painted without letting any of the paint get too drippy.

For the next image, I decided to brush water all over the areas I was about to paint,...

and add the paint right away, letting it drip and wash where it wanted.

(I am a bit embarrassed to show this image as I obviously got impatient and the masking fluid was not completely dry and it ran down the wet paint.

I knew this was just a rough run-through of experiments that I would be throwing away,

so I was not as patient as I would be with a real canvas

One cannot rush the masking fluid.

I wiped it up with a bit of paper towel.)

I followed the same wetting down of the paper procedure before I painted on some yellow.

For my next sample, I wet the page down, but used less water, so it would not be quite so loose.

I did the same with the light blue.

I painted the pink on the petals with a fine brush.

I finished with a bit more detail and some loose green for the stems and leaves,...

and then added more wet colors for the dripping effect.

 

For the other pages, I basically continued experimenting with putting down washes,

letting colors drip, putting on heavier colors where I wanted more detail.

(heavier paint on flowers)

(cleaner, more bold colors)

(more warm colors, blended colors)

It was a fun experiment and I am glad I did them on the cardstock instead of going right to the canvas.

When it came down to it, I did not like the results I had achieved with the dripping watercolors enough to go through with them on my canvas,
at least, maybe for this scene.
I loved the images the other artists have done with this, but I am not ready to frame my own attempts, so I chose to go with what I was comfortable with for my canvas:
copic markers.




Here is what I chose to do, partially finished...

and this is where I decided to stop.

I enjoyed the dripping watercolor method and hope to try it again.


Have you ever given the drippy watercolor method a try?

Here is a video I found very useful for explaining the technique.


Thanks for stopping by and have an excellent day!

Using a Sketch to Bring a Painting to Life.

Hello again, friends!

It has been a long time.

My easel has looked like this for some time now.

I recently discovered an artist's picture that I thought was so creative and beautiful.  It is Slaveika Aladjova's lion print done in watercolors, brushed with bright colors and dripping paints.


I wanted so much to try this technique.

I dug out the bee sketch I did a few weeks back,...

printed up the image I had sketched (enlarging it to the size I wanted to use in my piece),
rubbed pencil lead on the back of it,...

turned it over and taped it where I wanted it to be on my piece, and then traced the image so that it transferred onto my canvas.

I lightly added some more flower details to the canvas, and then decided to use some permanent calligraphy ink to mark parts of it.

I did not mark every line that I had sketched with the pencil, just the ones I chose to be in the piece. 

Once I was finished with it, I took a picture of it and printed up several of the images onto some heavy cardstock paper in an attempt at doing some different techniques and colors like the colorful lion watercolor.

(I still hadn't erased the pencil marks in this picture).

I will end this post here now and continue with what I came up with in a future post.

Thanks for stopping by!  I do plan to come around more often as the plant sales have passed, and I am so happy to be back at the paintbrush once again.

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Art Lesson: How to Draw a Bee on a Flower

Hello!

Are you thinking about spring today?

We had a taste of spring, and then it blew away returning the bitter cold to remind me that spring is still a week away.

I decided to draw a bee on a flower to help welcome spring.

First I started with the basic shapes of the parts of the picture.

I then added more of the basic parts of the bee.

Finally, I started sketching in more detail of the bee

as well as the individual petals.

All those tiny petals can seem daunting...

but in order to make a flower look realistic, especially this close up,

each petal must be considered.

Really, once they are started, it doesn't take as long as one might think

and the result they give makes them worth it.

(I watched  African Queen while I added the details of the petals and the finishing of the bee;
funny how looking at the bee now reminds me of Humphrey Bogart saying, "Rosey, old girl.")

 

I continued to add shading and detail until I felt it was enough.

I photocopied the original and then outlined it to show what it would look like in ink.

Here is the step by step sketch sheet if you would like a print up.

The print up sheet is free for personal use, just not for resale.

Thank you for stopping in.

(To copy these pages, click on the image, right click, and then click on "copy".

Open up Microsoft Word and right click on the screen, and then click "paste".

 The image should paste onto the page.

You can then click "print".

If you have difficulties or suggestions, please let me know.)

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