My Work: Recent Sketches

I've been experimenting with sketches adding background colors in watercolor and like the extra boldness it adds to my work. I don't know if I'll make it a regular thing, but it's been fun to try.

The biggest struggle is knowing how to paint the background without it looking too messy. Some strokes and puddles look cool and others, not so much. One tip I can share is that it's obviously easier to do the background with a larger round brush...so I used a size 10 brush. The wide part gives a nice swash and the round tip helps me get around the detail areas.

Here are some of the sketches. What do you think?

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For more of my work, follow along on Instagram to see my daily sketches and patterns.

Practice Recommendation: Magazine Illustrations

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me post these practice illustrations in my Stories. I've been wanting to get better at watercolor illustrations because I typically default to painting florals and fruit so I chose four magazine covers and painted them in a fairly quick style over four days. I took about 30-60 min for each. I wasn't aiming for perfect (clearly!), but instead I wanted to get the idea across and get a feel for sketching a space.

I'd love to be more comfortable painting a range of subjects, including people, animals, furniture, houses, etc. and these cover paintings are such a good idea. They have a variety of elements on each cover which make me consider depth and angles as well as figuring out how to "paint white" by leaving areas empty and painting around the white parts. There's the lettering aspect too which is fun! I'm going to continue this practice even though I probably won't keep sharing them...and I recommend you try too if you're in the same boat. Have fun!

Day 1: Real Simple

Day 2: Better Homes & Gardens

Day 3: Sunset

Day 4: House Beautiful

Day 5: Martha Stewart Living

Painting to Pattern: My Process

I'm a curious type who asks lots of questions in hopes of finding out how things work, why they're done the way they are, and how little things fit into a bigger picture. And since I have a fairly standard process when it comes to how I create a surface pattern from my watercolor art, I thought I'd share for you other curious types. So here it is...

When I'm creating patterns, I usually have a color palette in mind and paint in those particular colors. There are ways to change the colors in Illustrator or Photoshop but when possible, I prefer to keep my designs pretty true to the colors I use when I originally create them.

I'll usually find floral images in a book, on Pinterest or from photos I've taken around town and use them for inspiration. When I paint fruit, however, I typically do a google image search because I can see multiple colors and variations of a piece of fruit in one place which is super helpful.

Last week I worked on this pattern:

Which started as these individual motifs:

I then scanned at 600 dpi using the software that came with my scanner (not an amazing scanner by the way, but it works: HP Officejet Pro 6830). I selected separate motifs and made new layers from each so I could edit them one by one. I edit the levels, remove the paper background and any dust spots, smooth edges if necessary, brighten or adjust color, and sometimes remove or add part of the painted motifs if their shape needs a little help.

Each motif is then transferred as a separate element into Illustrator. For this particular pattern, I made mini bouquets from the elements and then laid out those bouquets to create my final design. I tried out a few background colors and then saved the few I liked best. And that's it!

June Tech Wallpaper Download

The June wallpaper download is here!

This spring-into-summer watercolor floral pattern is my choice for June's tech wallpaper. I painted each of these elements individually and laid them out in Illustrator to make this pattern which is always lots of fun and rewarding. It never ceases to amaze me how much you can do with Photoshop and Illustrator. This pattern is an example of that and it makes me happy. I hope it brings a smile to you this month! Download below.

My Work: 10-Day Project Review

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed I do a new 10-day project about every 10-days. I started these last December to help me focus on one type of art or theme and hopefully not only improve my skills, but also figure out what the type of art I truly enjoy. I'm ultimately working towards developing a "signature style" but have found I like so many things, it may take years to actually figure out! 

But maybe that's okay...and it's probably normal. Since I have no deadline for learning to draw and paint, I'm enjoying the process. One thing these 10-day projects have made me realize is that I truly enjoy working with watercolor and I especially love creating patterns with what I paint.

So now that I've completed 10 of these 10-day projects, I thought I'd share some of my favorite from the first five weeks for now. Side note: I'm taking a break from these 10-day projects to join the #100dayproject challenge (yikes!). It started yesterday, April 4 and lasts until July. I will do a hundred days of watercolor (#100daysofwatercolor and #100delighteddays) which means I have some flexibility with the subject, but am limited by the medium...although I think I'll sneak in some gouache as well. It's water-based so I think that's okay :) 

So here they are : the highlights of my first five 10-day projects. Thank you for following along over the past few months and for all of the encouragement. I truly appreciate it!

Week 1: Patterns created from gouache and watercolor sketches

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Week 2: Things to Wear

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Week 3: Florals

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Week 4: Lettering

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Week 5: Creatures

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Free Download: 2017 Printable Calendar

This year's printable calendar style is a little different than in the past because it's created from my floral painting sketches and lettering. I had fun putting it together for you and I hope it makes you smile throughout the year. Download below and enjoy!

Free Download: Floral Gift Tags

Happy Friday! Here are some cute notecards in navy and rose gold for you to print and use to your heart's content. They're ready to cut and can even be used as a little note card. 

Here are a few ways I like to use gift tags:
• Put on top of a gift box (obviously)
• Write a quick thank you and slip into a bag when I'm returning something to a friend
• Stick onto a sweet treat that I'm giving to a special friend
• Put a love note in my husband's backpack when he goes on a guys trip
• If my kids were old enough I'd add notes in their school lunches

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