It's Snowing

Finally it Snows!

Today, we finally received our first snow of the season. I love the first day of snow. It's just so fresh and pretty. Cold and chilly, yes. Pretty much gray all day, but that's okay ... because it's snowing! It has been snowing all day. The perfect day to stay home and do indoor things. I even skipped house cleaning. Who could clean house when it's snowing? I also prefer not to venture out on the roads. Why do people in a snowy region always seem to forget how to drive on the first day of snow? Snow is slippery.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! I'm cozy and warm indoors.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Sparkly Medium

In honor of the upcoming holiday season and to celebrate the first day of December, I decided to make today's tip about Iridescent Medium. There are a variety of mediums available for watercolor painting and Winsor & Newton make several I really like. I rarely use them, but they are fun to play with and explore. Hand painted Christmas cards are perfect for using the Iridescent Medium. Angel wings, dresses, Christmas ornaments painted in watercolor on paper can become magical and sparkly with just a little bit of medium.

First I mix a small puddles of the colors I plan to use in my painting on my palette. Then I pour a small drop of the Iridescent Medium the size of a dime or less onto my palette near the colors I want to mix with the medium. With a wet brush, I will pick up some of the medium and mix it into my puddle of color. Add a little more water if you want the color to be lighter. If you want the color to be a little darker, I suggest using a separate brush to get more color, so you don't contaminate your main palette color with sparkles.

I added the Iridescent Medium to the blue of the ornament ball shown here. I also added a little to the yellow I used to paint the cap on the ornament. I know it doesn't show up too well in the photo, but it looks so pretty and sparkly in person. The iridescent medium has a very fine sparkle to it. It is very easy to mix with watercolor paint.

Just remember to clean your brush well when you are done to remove all the glitter. You don't want to be painting a landscape or a portrait later on and find out things are sparkling when they shouldn't be.

This is definitely a fun watercolor medium to explore!

End of November

Cyber Monday

November 30th not only is it Cyber Monday, but for me it marks the end of the Autumn season. Most of the leaves have fallen by now. The gorgeous orange & yellow colors will soon be replaced. I've been pretty good at avoiding the stores with Christmas holiday decorations. It's just too soon. Sometimes I think Christmas decorations and music should not be allowed until December 1st. Having all that come on too soon and for too long spoils the magic of Christmas.

At least today, Cyber Monday is after Thanksgiving!

Happy online shopping everyone!

http://squier.etsy.com

Purchase 4 or more of my wearable art pendants & rings and I will ship your items via Priority Mail to the USA.

My Art Jewelry

Billiard Dew Drop Pendant

I am so excited about turning my art into fun and trendy art jewelry. I have decided to add a free silver plated ball chain with each of the Scrabble Tile pendants in my Etsy Shop so they are ready to wear. If you are a fan of my dew drops and landscapes, this is a great way to accessorize yourself with my art.

Take a peek at the Jewelry Section of My Etsy Shop and you'll be hooked. It will be hard to choose just one. They would make great stocking stuffers and grab bag gifts too!

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

The Monotone Challenge

Last week, I suggested testing out three color combinations from your palette. This week I am going to limit the color choice down to one color.

Beautiful paintings can be created with one color of watercolor paint. The key is to choose a color that will go dark, very dark and has a wide value range. Test your colors to see how dark they will go, less water more paint will help the paint go dark. Add more and more water, a little at a time to create a value scale. To lighten up the color, just keep adding more water.

For this little painting I used Maimeri Blu Payne's Grey. Payne's Grey is an excellent choice for this project. Payne's Grey is also one of those color that will vary from brand to brand. Maimeri's Payne's Grey is more on the blue side, while Winsor Newton's Payne's Grey is a touch more to the grey side.

Other colors from my Maimeri Blu palette that will work well are Sepia, Permanent Blue Violet, Burnt Umber.

What colors do you like to use to create a monotone painting?

New Project

Resin Pendants & Rings

This week, I started a fun new project. I've been wanting to create Scrabble tile pendants for a while now. I think they are so adorable. I turned a bunch of my very own original art into jewelry. It was so much fun to do.

The square ones are done on Scrabble tiles and the round ones are also done on little wooden game pieces. The doming resin makes them pop and look so cool.

Wearable Art! My art, turned into trendy little recycled, upcycled, awesome little pieces of jewelry.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Color Trio Experiment

Have you ever tried painting an entire painting with only three colors? You would be amazed at all the different colors you can create by mixing only three colors. Start with your primary colors: primary red magenta, primary yellow and primary blue cyan. Mix them together and you have your secondary colors: green, orange, purple. Then there is your tertiary colors and so on.

Grab yourself a sheet of watercolor paper and do some test color swatches. Choose any cool red, yellow and blue. Swash them in a circle, in a straight line, however you choose. Blend each color with the next. Next try this with a warm shade of red, yellow and blue. Then be daring and try this color mixing experiment with any three colors on your palette and see what you come up with. There is a whole range of colors right there on your palette that I bet you didn't know were there!

Mix 'em up! After completing your experiment of colors, choose a set of three colors and now create a painting using only those three colors.

Fun Abstracts

Teal Drips

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor & Ink Abstract Painting

Size: 11 x 15 inches

There is something very appealing and fun about creating abstract paintings. I love to create abstracts using watercolors. I've done a bunch in acrylics too, which someday I should post on my blog. The spontaneity and unpredictability of the watercolor is fun and intriguing.

My Studio

Fresh Paint!

It is so amazing to have had my studio room redone. A few years ago, I sanded, stained and varnished the floors myself. The wallpaper has been stripped. The walls have been washed, sanded, spackled and finally painted! Today, I removed all the renovation supplies from the room. Scrubbed and polished the floors, shiny clean. I moved in my easel I use for painting large acrylic abstract paintings and thought I should take a picture before the room becomes cluttered with supplies and the sun goes down. Boy the room does look tiny, the windows are kinda big. The room is approximately 8 x 11 feet. Yes, it is a small studio!

I am so happy it has been redone in a soft off white, ivory color with white trim and deep rich wooden floor. Simple, clean and fresh.

A Chill in the Air

Snowflakes 5

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

ACEO Art Card

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

Today there is definitely a chill in the air. I was hoping the warm weather would last just a little bit longer. At least the only snowflakes I have seen so far this season have been the snowflakes in my watercolor paintings! Temperatures here during the day are supposed to reach the 50s this week however, my fingers are still frozen. For now, I don't mind the rain that will head our way in a few days, I prefer to paint and dream of snow.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Glazing

I cannot express how important it is to learn the colors in your palette. Find out how many new and different colors you can create by combining the colors in different ways.

Glazing watercolors is a great way to increase the amount of colors you can create and to create colors that glow through other colors. Glazing watercolors is putting a wash of transparent watercolor over top of a color that is already dry. Through glazing you can create colors that glow, you can create color you cannot create by mixing two colors on your palette and applying the mix to your paper.

Practice glazing by painting a variety of one color squares on a piece of watercolor paper. Allow the squares of color to dry completely. Then using transparent colors, place a swash over top of the dry color. Bring the transparent swash of color beyond the dry square. Repeat this with a variety of colors. By bringing the swash beyond the dry square, you will be able to see the swash of green applied over the yellow square creates a very pretty glowing yellow-green. The light red creates a pretty orange that has a gorgeous glow of yellow. You can intensify one yellow with another yellow.

The glazing technique can be used in a variety of watercolors, from flowers to barns and more. The key is to glaze a transparent color over the top of any dry color.

Abstract Watercolors

Spiders

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

Size: 11 x 15 inches

Today is a gloriously warm and sunny day! I have plans to spend a bit of time outdoors today to soak up some warmth and sunshine. With the return of warm temperatures seems to come the return of little creatures.

Layers of Leaves

Autumn Leaves

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

Size: 11 x 15 inches

A bright and sunny day, perfect for raking up all those fallen leaves. A day just like this was the inspiration for this painting.

Today is the perfect day to bake a nice hot apple pie or even apple crisp.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Blow Drying Your Watercolors

Yes, you can use a regular hand held hair blow dryer for drying your watercolor paintings. The key is not use the blow dryer until the watercolor paint and water have finished doing their job of mixing, mingling and blending. You can speed the drying process by using a blow dryer on your wet watercolors. Make sure the watercolor paint is not drippy wet, otherwise you will run the risk of blowing the color across the page to areas where you don't want it to be.

Blow drying your watercolor paintings can speed the drying process so you can go onto the next step. You definitely want your watercolor to be completely dry if your next step involves a hard edge or a fine line.

Spooky Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Decorated on Halloween night, our dimly lit front parlor spooked a lot of trick-or-treaters ... the scare man on the front porch, the grave yard across from the door, the red lights in the upstairs room added to the ambiance.

Hey, with over 200 kids coming to your door, ya gotta scare off a few!

It's a Barn Day

Lil Red Barn I

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

11 x 15 inches

It is an absolutely gorgeous sunny and bright day ... a chill in the air. The perfect autumn day! It just feels like a barn day.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

The Best Watercolor Brushes

Winsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable brushes are known through out the watercolor world as being the best watercolor painting brushes ever. I have to agree. I love my WN Series 7 brushes, I treasure them dearly. They can be rather pricey and are worth every penny. They hold the perfect amount of paint and water. They have just the right spring and snap.

Why do they call them Series 7? Back in 1866, Queen Victoria requested Winsor & Newton create for her the finest watercolor brushes in her favorite size, No. 7 round.

My favorite Series 7 brush is or shall I say was the No. 2 round. Sadly it has lost its spring, its snap ... it met its death mysteriously. It somehow rolled off my art table and onto the floor landing sable end straight down due to the kink when wet and attempting to swash paint across watercolor paper. I'm not sure if it was my error or the cat. Either way, it was an accidental death.

It is so important to take really good care of your brushes, especially your Series 7 brushes!

Snowflakes Series

Snowflakes 1

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

ACEO - Art Card

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

I have finally completed adding my Snowflakes Series into my Etsy Shop. This was such a fun series to create. They would make a great little addition to add into a Christmas Card or any holiday card, what a treat it would be for your recipient to open your greeting card and find an added bonus of a little original piece of art which is actually a piece of a larger piece.

ACEO - Art Cards are little collectable works of art. A great way to purchase an affordable piece of fine art from an artist.

Support Artists - Buy Original Fine Art

Made My Day

Lil Guide Tea Light Candle Holder makes the Etsy Front Page

What a fun surprise today! We received a convo from a friend DesignsbyShellie on Etsy who spotted our brand new tea light candle holders on the front page of Etsy. I noticed the convo 20-25 minutes after it had been sent and quickly went to Etsy's front page and it was still there! Thank you Shellie! And a big Thank You Etsy!

My husband and I have a second shop on Etsy, it is called SquierDesign.etsy.com. He thought it would be a great idea to separate our fine art from our vinyl graphics & design work. So we've been testing it out for a few months now. Michael is an industrial designer, who ended up designing and producing graphics for race cars. He loves coming up with design ideas for products. So hopefully, we will all see more of his ideas popping up in our Etsy shop.

We're still debating the one shop or two shops on Etsy idea.

Right now ... I'm happy one of his products made it to the front page of Etsy!

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Stuck On Color

Ever find yourself painting with one particular color all the time? Always have a favorite go to color that you use way to often? A certain color that is in all of your paintings? An over used color?

Perhaps it is time to switch it up a bit! If you paint with watercolors fresh from the tube, take that tube of paint out of your regular stash. Move it from your paint box, your drawer, wherever you normally keep it and set it somewhere out of the way. If you paint with your colors dried in your palette cover that well with a few swatches of masking tape. This way if the color is out of reach or hidden, you will not be tempted to use it.

Encourage yourself to try new color combinations. Explore the other colors in your palette.

Gift Certificates

Tis the Season

Tis the season to begin thinking about the upcoming holiday season.

Who will you be visiting?

Who will you be inviting over?

Who will most likely end up just dropping by?

What do we serve our guests?

What do we bring as hostess gifts?

What do we give as a token of appreciation?

It's time to start, if you haven't started already!

A Cosmic Series

Nebula 3

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

ACEO Art Card

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 Inches

I created a series of ACEOs called Nebula, a rather cosmic looking abstract series. This one here is the 3rd one in the series. This particular series consists of a total of 4 original abstract watercolor paintings. All of which are currently available in my Etsy shop.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Fluffy White Clouds

When creating clouds in watercolor painting, one does not use white paint. You need to save the white of the paper to create white clouds. As you paint your sky wet into wet, leave spaces for the white puffy clouds. Often times, the white of the paper shrinks as the sky color bleeds into the vacant white but wet area. To remedy this situation, use a tissue. A plain old ordinary blow your nose type of tissue.

1. While the paint and paper is still wet, blot your clouds with a clean tissue. The color will be picked up from the paper and absorbed into the tissue.

2. Remember to twist and turn your tissue each time you blot. You want to blot with a clean portion of the tissue each time.

Keep the blotting to a minimum. Do not create a line of exact same sized, repetitively stamped clouds. Create clouds of varying sizes and shapes.

Cropping and Prints

A section of Apple Trio

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

Full Size: 11 x 15 inches

Matted: 16 x 20 inches

Autumn is definitely in the air today. We've got a bit of autumn rain going on today. I wish it wasn't raining, I want to go apple picking!

Cropping in on a larger painting or perhaps a painting that did not turn out so great can have a really cool and interesting effect.

What do you think, would this make a cool print?

I have been toying with the idea of creating prints of some of my work. Do I stay with all original paintings or do I venture into the world of prints?

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Paint What You Love

One of the best tips I think I can give beyond learning various techniques and the basics to watercolor painting is to paint what you love. If you love what you are doing and you do what you love you will constantly continue to improve. If you love landscapes, paint landscapes. If you love barns and farms, then paint barns and farms. If you absolutely love flowers, paint flowers. Keep painting the subject matter you love. Inspiration to paint will come from those things around you that you treasure. What better way to keep practicing than to paint those things you truly love to paint.

Abstract ACEO

Nebula 4

by Artist Rita Squier

Abstract Watercolor, India Ink & Gouache

ACEO - Art Card

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

I created 4 abstract paintings in the Nebula series. This is number 4 out of 4.

Did you know Etsy has a Team for ACEOs? It's called the ACETSY Team. Anyone who has a shop on Etsy and has at least 5 ACEOs on sale in their shop at all times can become a member. Only little works of art that are exactly 2.5 x 3.5 inches, created in any medium can be called an ACEO.

ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions & Originals.

This Nebula 4 ACEO and more are listed in the ACEO Section of my Etsy Shop.

Dancing Feet Dew Drop

Samba Drop

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

ACEO - Art Card

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

From my popular Dew Drop Series, the dew drop with the dancing feet. Okay, I don't know where that came from ... perhaps the colors, the background, the love of dance.

This little dew drop and more can be found in the ACEO section of my Etsy Shop.

Collecting ACEOs is a great way to start your original art collection. Start yours today!

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Practice Strokes

Another great use for those left over scraps from trimming watercolor paper down to size or removing those giant watermarks and embossed logos is practicing strokes.

Let's just say you're trying to get the right stroke for painting those whispy leafless tree limbs. Pick up a scrap of watercolor paper and practice. You don't want those strokes to look all the same. You want variety in shape and size. A patchy scruff of grass, do you have the right color, the right brush, the right amount of paint and water?

A scrap of watercolor paper is perfect for practicing until you get the desired stroke down pat.

Simplicity in Abstract Art

Umber Drips

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

Size: 11" x 15"

Sometimes it is the sheer simplicity in abstract art that is the most fascinating. As with almost any style of painting you can create your own story behind a piece. The subtle changes in light and value, the mood, the colors, contribute to creating a very subjective meaning, a very personal experience for each individual person. I believe everyone has their own take on what they see and what they feel about a painting. Sure you can contemplate what the artist was thinking, what the artist was trying to paint ... give it a try ...

What do you see in this painting?

What is the feeling in this painting?

What was the artist thinking about when creating this painting?

Naming A Painting

Death of a Frog

by Artist Rita Squier

Abstract Painting

Watercolor, India Ink & Gouache

Size: 11 x 15 inches

Naming a painting is sometimes more difficult than painting the painting itself. Here is a painting I created either in or in preparation for one of the abstract watercolor classes I teach. At the time it was created and when I was preparing to show it to my students, it did not have a name. I was holding up the painting, talking about it and the techniques. I looked at the ink splotch in the middle of the painting and thought it looked like frog's legs, as though he was trying to leap through the painting but got stuck. The title just came to me ... Death of a Frog. I know a little bit morbid and so unlike me. But the title just stuck, just like the frog was stuck in the center of the painting.

This painting and more are available in my new Abstract Art section of my Etsy Shop.

Enjoy!