Twitter Art Exhibit Los Angeles

Dew Drop Trio
by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting
Size: 4x6 inches

This is my entry into the next Twitter Art Exhibit!

The Twitter Art Exhibit: Los Angeles
Exhale Unlimited Gallery
953 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, CA
January 12 through February 10, 2013

For more information: http://twitterartexhibit.org

If you are an artist on Twitter, check out the Call For Artists:
http://twitterartexhibit.org/callforartists
Deadline for Submission is Friday, January 4, 2013

Post Card Sized Paintings will be for sale for $35.00

The charity the sale of the paintings will benefit is Art Division in LA's Rampart District, an at-risk group within one of Los Angeles' most densely populate and underserved communities.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

The Old Palette

Dig out that old watercolor palette.  Maybe there is a color waiting there that you have not used in a very long time.  Perhaps it will become your new favorite old color.

Here is a picture of a palette I have not used in a few years.  Permanent Violet Bluish is a color that I have had in all my palettes since ummm 1998.  This palette is not that old though, I think I put it together in the early 2000s.  The turn of the current century!

MaimeriBlu's Avignon Orange, Dragon's Blood and Garnet Lake.  I love these colors!  These are three colors I chose based solely on their names.  Yes, I am guilty of this.  It's gotta a cool name and I want to try it.  Garnet because it's my birthstone.  Dragon's Blood, it's a mythical magical color.  I will be incorporating these colors in upcoming projects.

What colors are on your old watercolor palette?

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Take Notes! 

It is an excellent idea to take notes of the colors your are using in a watercolor painting.

This is a great thing to practice if you are new to watercolor painting.  It will help you remember your colors and color mixtures.  You can always refer back to your notes in the future if you want to know "How did I mix that color?"

If you are working on a project that will take more than a few days, having color notes to reference over a period of time is very helpful.  Especially if you have several reds or blues that look the same in the palette but paint very differently on paper.

Paint a swash of color and write down the name of the color.  If you have that color in more than one brand, remember to add the brand to your notes.  If you're mixing two colors together, make note of the two colors you mixed to achieve that color.

I love to take notes and I save them for future reference.

Christmas Ornaments

It is so much fun creating Christmas ornaments from my hand tipped, torch fired enamel beads.  The large 20 mm balls are perfect for miniature Christmas Ornaments.

I have been busy adding more ornaments to the Christmas Ornament Section my Squier Etsy Shop.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

My favorite mixture for creating the perfect color for rocks with watercolor is burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.

Mix the two color equally and deeply and you can achieve a rich black, water it down a bit for the perfect neutral grey.

Add more burnt sienna if you want browner rocks.
Add more ultramarine blue if you want a blue grey rock.

Both burnt sienna and ultramarine blue are sedimentary colors.  They have heavy pigments that will sink at different rates within the water.  You can achieve neat sedimentary or granulating effects for rocks by mixing these two colors together.  It creates a cool textured effect.

I love this combo!