Watercolor Wednesday: The First Stroke

Welcome to the first edition of Watercolor Wednesday at Inexhaustible Inspiration!

I am excited to share my fumbling beginnings in this art form with you all.

The first two paintings this month are actually postcards. Yes, you can buy watercolor postcards to paint and send to your friends!

Merry Christmas!

 These were painted with Artist's Loft watercolors and I have to say I like the way these paints work. They have a very opaque look on the paper when painting wet on dry (that's wet paint on dry paper, as opposed to wet on wet when the paper has been dampened before the paint is applied). I'm happiest with the green I was able to mix up with the blue and yellow, though I was a bit dismayed to discover that the red I selected for some of the lights on the tree dried a pale pink. Oh well.

I've warned you all about my love of puns, right?

For this one, I was able to find a red that stayed red when it dried. I tried to be clever with the eyes and they came out a bit creepy. (Or so I thought. The recipient said it wasn't.) I wasn't thrilled with the grayish color the white took on for the bob at the end of the hat, but I did like the way the blue wash in the background turned out. I'm still learning how to stop before I overwork an area.

Night and the Moon

For this one, I switched supplies all around. I switched to larger paper from Strathmore and paints from The Fine Touch. I also used brushes from a set rather than the single (honestly, pitiful) brush from the pan paint set.

The design is inspired by a line from the Tow'rs song "The Kitchen": "If I was the night, then you were the moon." Out of context, it's a very sweet line and I wanted to capture some of the sad romance of it. (In context, the song is much more melancholic.) I tried a couple of new techniques. I used an old gift card to create texture in the grass on the left; I spattered some white on the dark areas for stars in the night; and I used wet on wet for the figures to help the colors mix a bit more. I'm still not sure if I got the emotion I was going for, but I had fun doing it.

Here's the song that inspired Night and the Moon:

In case you missed it, I had an interview on Amanda Bradburn's blog yesterday. Check it out here.