Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

A Repeat Tuesday's Tip from 2009

Clean your brushes!

It's a good idea to clean your brushes ... oh at least once or twice a year. :)

Check out this old post:

I'm on a brush roll aren't I? :)
Use them and take care of them!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Etsy Front Page


My Bakers Dozen Torch Fired Enamel Beads made it to the Etsy Front Page on Sunday, July 24th at around 1 pm eastern time!

The Bakers Dozen set did not sell, but a few other sets of beads have sold, which does make me happy.

Check out more of my beads for sale in the Boho Chic Beads section of my Squier Etsy Shop.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting


The Fan Brush

Along the same lines as last week's post. The fan brush is yet another brush I purchased and rarely use. I haven't used it in years.

A fan brush is great for creating clumps of grass in one swoop.

For me, I find it easy enough to fan apart the bristles of a round brush or even a flat brush wet with sticky watercolor paints to create a similar effect, the clumps of grass blades.

Let's turn the table ...

How do you use a fan brush in watercolor painting?

Monday, July 18, 2011

8x10 Print

Purple Passion Drops

Print Size: 8x10 inches
Paper Size: 10x12 inches

A fine art giclee print of my original watercolor paintings from my popular Dew Drop Series.

My new prints are professionally printed on somerset velvet paper with epson ultrachrome archival inks.

It is hard to tell it from the original!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting


Second Chance to the New Brush

My favorite brushes are all made by Winsor &Newton.

My two most favorite flat brushes are the 3/4 inch One Stroke and the 1 1/2 inch Wash Brush with the short house painter style handle.

I do plan on giving the 1 1/2 inch Series 680 red handled brush another go this summer. I have recommended it to my students as a lesser expensive alternative to the slightly pricier wash brush. As you may be able to tell by the photo, I haven't used the red brush all too much. The bristles are still practically white.

I do have my favorite standby brushes, but now is the time to set aside the old favorites and perhaps give the newer ones a chance.

I bet you are like me, you have a few brushes you've purchased but do not use all too much. You keep reaching for the old faithfuls. You bought new brushes, maybe you have never used them. Perhaps there's a special technique or flick of the wrist the new brush may perform better or differently than the old brush. You won't know if you don't give it a go.

Let's pull them out and get those new brushes wet and sticky with paint!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Long Awaited Product


You've chanted, "We want prints!" over and over.

The long awaited product is here! Now available in my Squier Etsy Shop is a special set of prints from my Dew Drop Series.

This time around, I'm keeping all the originals for myself and making the prints available to you for purchase.

Currently there are five different images available.

Print Size: 8x10 inches
Paper Size: 10x12 inches

Mix and match to your heart's delight!
They will look awesome matted and framed and grouped together.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

The Pitt Pen

For my pen and ink watercolors, I always use a Faber Castell's Pitt Artist Pen. It is an india ink pen which is also waterproof.

Waterproof is important when drawing with ink and then painting in watercolor over the top. If your ink is not waterproof when dry it will bleed and look messy.

The Pitt Pens can be purchased as a set or purchased individually. They also come in different sized pen nibs:
S - Super Fine
F - Fine
M - Medium
B - Brush Tip

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Etsy Front Page at Midnight


Foggy Blue Too

My torch fired beads were featured on the Etsy front page at midnight on July 3rd in this awesome treasury.

The beads sold on Friday, July 8th.

Double yay!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Thai Watermelon Carving



Watermelon Rose Baskets

Every summer picnic or party should have a nicely carved watermelon fruit basket.

This is the start of one I carved for my nieces graduation party last weekend. I ended up carving two that were pretty much the same. I forgot to take pictures of both and pictures of the finished basket. The fruit salad was delicious!

Time to head to the grocery store and carve one for the Fourth of July.

Yes, I carved it myself!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Summer Holiday



Have a fun and colorful Fourth of July Weekend!

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