PagesPat's Ponderings

Saturday, February 1, 2014

2014 New Technique Learned: Watercolors

One of my 2014 Crafting goals is to challenge myself more. Well, a PDA group I am in, Journal Mania Discussions, is doing just that.  The first challenge it issued was to make our own art journals, which wasn't a challenge for me. but the second challenge was!
I had never used water colors before, so this new media was an unknown.  And as I experiment in it, I find that control is the last thing that an artist has with water colors. You never know what and where the water will take you!
So, I have been practicing my newest passion. I use $1 paints from WalMart and those kids' brushes you can get at the dollar store that come 12 in a pack.
I am not showing my first horrid experiments, as I don't want to scare anyone away from my blog. But practice makes, well, there is no perfection in art, so I'll say it makes for better backgrounds. I've only dabbled in making water color backgrounds...so far.
I think I am loving the green, blue and pink mixes I get, so my covers, inside and out, sport that color combo. I used alpha stickers to title my journal, although I ran out of a couple "Rs" and "Os."
I like green, blue and yellow combos the best, though, and even tried painting on a paper doily, and made it into one of my water color journal pages.   My journal is roughly 5x5 inches. Sometimes a larger "canvas" can be overwhelming.
So here are a couple more pages that I water colored, trying to get different looks going. Every time I think I know what the page will look like, water, that tricky devil, takes me by surprise.
Here's another page I'll show you.  I tried to make a more colorful one resembling a rainbow, but kept dropping paint on the other colors until I finally said "okay, let the drops fall where they may!" I don't like it as much, but it's a learning journal. Hee hee!
So now I have a bound water color journal full of backgrounds for the next step. I haven't decided whether to draw some zentangles and let the colors I already painted decorate my finished projects, or if I should add more color to them after I draw the tangles. What do you think?
Whatever your art media is, always leave some time for a new technique. You never know when you will find yourself in another wild passion! Get carried away--it's worth it!

1 comment:

nwilliams6 said...

How fun! I am so impressed you are delving into this! I want to try it some day. I love the colors and the shades you have used here! Lovely work. Do you ever do the MIX challenge on SCS? This all looks perfect for that. Hugz!