Hello friends. If you haven't visited in a while, I'm hosting two classes with Jeanne Oliver. One is an online class called
Close To Home: A Watercolor Landscape Journey. The other is a class at Jeanne's beautiful home and studio in scenic Colorado, coming up in September. It's called
Field Guide: A Nature Inspired Sketchbook. We'll be learning more about sketching and watercolor and will be taking our supplies outside to sketch scenes from Jeanne's beautiful land. Both classes are going to be jam packed with tips to jump start your art. We'll learn about sketching, watercolors, setting up a palette, supplies, and taking it all outside. You can learn more about each class by checking out the blog post links I've provided above. I'd love to have you join me in this creative journey.
In this post I'm sharing a project that will be similar to lesson in the Close To Home class. You can get an idea of what the class has to offer, however all of the lessons in class will be in video format. I can't wait for it to begin on August 22nd.
Experimenting with mixed media and watercolor can give some fun results. To get my creative juices flowing I like to sometimes get out my Dylusions journals and just have some fun. In this journal, I've prepared each page ahead of time with a piece of vintage paper, some gesso, etc. So every time I turn to a new page, I'm given a new challenge.
I collect vintage postcards and have noticed they offer some of the prettiest landscape scenes. So I've been incorporating them into my art lately.
I started by adding a simple pencil sketch to my journal.
I don't plan anything ahead, I just let the art flow onto the pages as I dig through my supplies. Here I added some borders and some squares in ink.
I switched my art page to reflect a summer scene instead of a winter scene as the postcard illustrates. So on my pages, I painted winter colors and summer colors.
Here's a shot of my well used watercolor palette. We'll talk about supplies in both of my classes. The online class goes into more depth about supplies needed and how to set up a palette.
Next up I just start adding watercolor. It's fun to experiment with watercolor to see how it goes down over other painted surfaces. Here, it's applied over gesso and has a bit of resist to it.
I just kept adding paint, looking for a few values, splattering, adding white paint, etc.
I experimented with acrylic ink and a dip pen.
Here is my final result. I love the thicknesses, the layers created by the vintage papers, the black ink and watercolors.
Just a fun experiment and as these pages add up in my journal, they're sure fun to look at.
Watercolors have captured my heart. There's just so much to learn.
Getting back into my art has been so rewarding and satisfying.
I hope you'll get creative with me and join in on a class. If you've wanted to start, my classes will be great starting points. If you've abandoned your art because you didn't think you were good enough or life got in the way, my classes are just for you. I want you to experience the joy of art and Jeanne's network of classes are just the ticket. So much sharing and a great community of artists. I hope you'll join me.
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