I would love to be able to paint florals. Pretty, detailed florals. But my beginning watercolor classes just don't teach florals...I still have lots to learn. But since I'm a little impatient, I made an attempt to paint flowers without any tutorial...and here is the result.
They're not that beautiful, but they do resemble flowers so I'm happy about that, for now :)
Brush: size 8 (I think! Forgot to make a note of it)
Watercolors: Winsor & Newton Cotman Pan Set
This week I started the second part of Yao Cheng's Beginning Watercolor class on Creativebug. The first session was all about making leaves and here is my first attempt. I've said this before: I really like Yao's teaching style. She is gifted but has a nice way of explaining what she's thinking at a basic level so I feel like it's actually possible to create what she is painting. And yes, mine are a mess compared to hers but at least I have a general sense of how to make the leaves she demonstrates and now it's up to me to continue practicing.
This wreath version above is my favorite attempt.
As I continue learning to watercolor, I am getting ready to start the second part of Yao Cheng's Beginning Watercolor class on Creativebug but don't yet have all the supplies Yao recommends which is delaying my start. (Although in the interim I'm working on a different watercolor class on Skillshare which I'm also enjoying...I'll share more later.)
As I prepare to continue Yao's class, however, I purchased the 10mm angled brush she recommends. I found it at Michaels and used my 50% off coupon for a total spend of $5. Not bad.
I couldn't help myself and started using the brush to see how it feels and thought I'd show you what I'm learning.
To test out the brush I drew lines, letters, shapes and just filled up a practice sheet to see how it felt. My favorite discovery was the way it will make thin petal shapes for a basic floral.
I also like the straight edges, lines and the possibility of creating structured shapes. I will need to practice over and over to gain control and reduce the shakiness of my lines, but the potential is there. I can see myself using this for painting houses (which I currently love to sketch), florals, geometric patterns, and possibly even letters.
I'll continue practicing with it and and looking forward to seeing how Yao recommends it be used.
LINKS
Yao Cheng's Class: Beginning Watercolor via Creativebug
Paper: Strathmore Skills Practice Watercolor
Brush: Winsor & Newton Cotman 10mm (3/8") Angled
Paint: Winsor & Newton Cotman Pan Set
I'm going to sing Lisa Congdon's praises again. I am so happy I discovered both her and Creativebug because she is teaching me so much as I continue my online learning addiction. Her approachable style, encouragement to practice regularly, and reminders that I shouldn't be aiming for perfection are what make her an ideal teacher in my book. Not to mention: her work is really great.
In addition to her 31 Things To Draw Course, Lisa has a Drawing and Illustration Basics class which I'm going through at the same time and feel like a whole world has been opened to me. A world of drawing. Something I never thought I could do...but I'm doing it. And yeah, I'm drawing at an elementary level but I feel like I'm improving each day and I'm completely enjoying myself, which is a good enough reason to continue.
Today I'm sharing the sketches and a bit of the process that I took to make this month's floral tech calendar. (If you didn't get yours yet, you can get it HERE.) Lisa recommends drawing things again and again and in as many variations as possible.
My final piece looks like this:
I started with sketching a page of asters.
Chose one, cropped and lightened it in Photoshop. Then brought it into Illustrator and used Live Trace and the pen tool to vectorize and smooth it out.
Then played with color, added stems, and built a page full of flowers. It was fun and I'm happy with the way it came out :)
Hi there! I am working on a pattern collection for fun thanks to Bonnie Christine's Skillshare Class and Workshop. I signed up for her "Create 3 Focal Patterns in 3 Weeks" workshop because I wanted to both learn from her more closely and to help myself stay on track to finish a few focal patterns.
The surface pattern design world is fairly new to me but I love it and am enjoying what I'm learning. Knowing how to design patterns will allow me to provide my clients with something unique for their brand. It will also give me the opportunity to create my own fabric or notebooks and it will mean I can provide you with new printables and downloads!
I used these simple motifs to create my repeating pattern.
And here is the final in a few colorways. This would be considered a blender print in a collection because it's fairly simple and will help tie the rest of the collection together.
Have a great weekend!
Have you heard of Lisa Congdon? I first learned about her a year ago when she was interviewed on the Say Yes podcast. I listened and was intrigued by her idea of passion projects, but then forgot about her until recently when I discovered she teaches classes on Creativebug (which is my new favorite discovery...online art classes from accomplished artists).
Lisa is an artist, illustrator and author who also happens to be a great teacher. I'm currently taking her 31 Things to Draw class and really appreciate the way she encourages drawing because she shows her style and gives tips but also makes me feel like she’s giving me permission to try my own thing. Which is obviously the point of art, but sometimes it’s hard to think beyond what someone is showing me if I don’t feel like my skills are strong.
She has 31 prompts for 31 days and she gives a 3-minute lesson on how she draws the item. Her day 3 prompt is chairs, which are difficult. Lisa recommends drawing them for 20-minutes, even if it's the same style chair, to get comfortable with the 3-D aspect of chairs and I’m telling you, it worked. I chose to draw the same style chair (copying one of her styles), and it was so really frustrating until the twentieth time when I realized that what I drew actually looked like a chair. Success! I have a long way to go but was excited that the dedicated time and consistency paid off.
You’ll see my sketches are a mess...yikes. But I took the one that came out best, digitized it, and created a pattern. If you’re looking to spend 30-min a day on something creative, I recommend signing up for a free trial on Creativebug and finding a class that speaks to you. Have fun!
