I’ve decided to make watercolor Christmas tags this year. Most of the time for watercolor, I sketch in pencil, go over it in ink and then watercolor over that. For these, I was a little more spontaneous and just went straight for it with the watercolor. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. 🙂
This is not a Christmas tag. About halfway through on day 2, I got a little frustrated. But I persevered.
I love making homemade watercolor cards. These are going to family in Louisiana who I haven’t seen since February 2020 and probably won’t get to see until Spring or Summer 2021. It’s been tough, I miss them so much but I feel like these little things help us to stay connected in a small way.
Happy Anniversary card for my dad and step-mom. Watercolor and Ink.
Birthday card for my Maw-Maw. Watercolor, Ink and white Gel Pen.
So I got an early Christmas present! A graphics drawing tablet and Rebelle 3. I. AM. SO. EXCITED. I was literally giggling as I tried it out for the first time. If you’d like to see a video of how COOL Rebelle 3 is for digital watercolor, check out this guy, Martin Hanschild:
And here are the first two drawings I did with my new tools. 🙂
QUACK.
Of course one of the first things I’d draw is Doctor Who related.
Things have been tough over here since the start of the pandemic as they have been for many, many other people across the world.
We are choosing to stay home, just the 3 of us, to celebrate Thanksgiving (minimally as it’s a crap holiday) and Christmas this year but want to still stay connected to our families. This is the first year that I will ever send a Thanksgiving card but I think it’s an important year for me to do so to remind our families how much we love them and miss them.
Watercolor and ink.
I think there is something special about sending a handmade card in the mail. It says, “I took the effort to make this for you.” Reminds me of this poster I made a while back: Ways To Show You Care. This is an updated ‘Socially Distant’ version.
I was going through old watercolor paintings today and found quite a few that had evolved and changed over time.
The first evolution: I am Living the Dream. It’s clear I was learning how to even use watercolors and learning different styles of lettering. These were my first ‘real’ watercolors – my previous experiences being the crayola washable watercolors for children.
The next evolution: Get Messy. At this time, I was learning new-to-me watercolor techniques via YouTube videos. I love this one where I used a straw to blow the watercolor into the ‘splat’ shape. I was also further expanding my lettering skills.
It’s fun to go back and look at old art and see how things have changed and progressed. I really had no idea what I was doing at the beginning. As a recovering perfectionist, it was hard to even start knowing that it wouldn’t be very good. But, like my art, I’ve changed and grown and I now know that everyone starts at the bottom of the barrel when learning something new. And I’ll never get to where I want to be if I don’t try. It’s doesn’t have to be perfect or even good – I just have to start.
This Love Series post is dedicated to George Floyd and his family. This is me sending love to George Floyd, his family, and his friends, many of whom are here in Houston.
This is also me sending love to all those who have experienced and continue to experience racism. You are not alone. We will eradicate racism together. <3
It’s fall – and I know this not because of the weather (it’s in the high 80s here in Houston). No, I know it’s fall because one of my favorite TV shows is returning this Sunday after a very long break. Doctor Who returns this Sunday and I am beyond excited! I’ve been craving this show for a few weeks now and it’s because of what it stands for: hope, kindness, courage, wonder and love (among many others). This show has been and continues to be a bright light in my life and a beacon of hope to many.
So I’ve chosen Doctor Who as the 13th installment of my Love Series which is serendipitous as this Sunday will be the premiere of the 13th Doctor. She will be the first female version of the Doctor and I can’t wait to see what adventures she’ll take us on. Allons-y!
A while back I wrote about some gentle reminders I created and put on my refrigerator to help me survive toddlerhood (thankfully, they’ve been working). One of those was this one:
This was one of my first forays into watercolor and I had a ton of fun making this one. If you too would like to ‘Get Messy’ (see what I did there?), you can try out some cool watercolor techniques by watching this YouTube video. It’s the one I used when I was learning all about painting with watercolor. Now get messy!
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