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Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Creating the Color of Sand

Many people do not believe me when I first tell them the two perfect colors in watercolor to mix to create a lovely shade of sand. Beach sand.

Purple + Yellow = Sand

I use MaimeriBlu's Permanent Violet Bluish and Indian Yellow. Just a tiny bit of each and a whole lot of water.

Purple and yellow are on opposite sides of the color wheel. When mixed together you get a neutral, in this case a tan.

You can try different shades of yellow mixed with your purple to see how it goes. A touch more yellow to warm it up and touch more purple to cool it off. The major component is the water, lots of it.

Valentine

Me and My Valentine made Whoopie Pies on Valentine's Day!

I've been meaning to share the pictures and finally got a chance to do so.

A heart shaped whoopie pie ... so romantic!

Everything is better with sprinkles.

Just ask the puppy, he stole one of the giant whoopie pies right off the kitchen counter and was about to help himself to a second one. We caught him just in time. I was only out of the room for 2 minutes tops. I'm sure he would have eaten them all if he had more time.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Don't Rush It!

Sometimes you just have to let the watercolor paint and paper dry at its own pace. If you rush it, you will ruin it!

Magical things can happen when you allow the paint to dry and leave it alone.

Resist the urge to rush back in and touch things up. Change things around. Fix this, fix that. Especially while the paint and paper is at that stage between wet and dry. That damp stage, no matter what you do, you will ruin it. You'll make it worse.

Leave it alone, let it dry and it will be better than you imagined.

Patience.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

My Color Picks

I use Maimeri Blu watercolor paints in my painting classes. I recommend to my students a set of ten colors. A warm and cool red, a warm and cool yellow, a warm and cool blue, two neutrals plus a green and a purple. With this combination you can mix tons of colors.

The colors I recommend are:

Payne's Grey

Burnt Sienna

Crimson Lake

Primary Red Magenta

Indian Yellow

Lemon Yellow

Sap Green (if available)

Primary Blue Cyan

Ultramarine Blue

Permanent Violet Bluish

I have these laid out in my palette with the neutrals on the left. Starting with Payne's Grey on the lower left (then I have one extra neutral Sepia, rarely used) and Burnt Sienna. Across the top is Primary Red Magenta, Crimson Lake, Indian Yellow, Lemon Yellow. Down the right side starting at the top is a little bit of Permanent Green Deep (an optional green if Sap is not available), Sap Green, Primary Blue Cyan, an extra color Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Permanent Violet Bluish.

It's great to have the basic ten and then add in a few of your own favorites.

If you want to go with a more limited palette, I would recommend:

Paynes Grey, Burnt Siena, Crimson Lake, Indian Yellow, Sap Green and Ultramarine Blue.

Recently Read

The Cat Who Went Bananas

by Lilian Jackson Braun

I got a Nook for my birthday last month. Just a couple weeks ago, I went to the library and learned how to borrow books using my new Nook. It's awesome! This was my first ebook I borrowed and I read it in just a weekend. It was a quick and easy fun read. In 7 days, it simply disappears from my Nook! Poof.

I've always said, I love real books. I would never want an electronic book reader. My very large, seemingly heavy duty bookshelf began to lean to one side. I removed all the books from my bookshelf, piled them all neatly in the hallway. Until my bookshelf could be repaired. The bookshelf disappeared from my office. The books are still in the hall. I have A LOT of books!

Instead of the bookshelf returning to my office, I received a Nook for my birthday. Which is fantastic.

I won't give up going to charity book sales. It's hard to pass up a $1 book and the charity can use the dollars.

But where do I put all my treasured books?

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Paint Your Own Cards

February is a month where I could go broke buying birthday cards. Whether you're an artist or just someone who dabbles in watercolor from time to time, you too can paint your own greeting cards.

You can buy a box of blank greeting cards, I've been using the Strathmore Cards. They come in boxes of 10, 20 and 100 and include an envelope with a pretty deckled edge.

I purchased a box of 100 cards with envelopes from Cheap Joe's Art Stuff online. That way I always have them handy, ready whenever I need one.

Sometimes I paint a bunch of cards ahead of time, leaving the inside blank so it can be used for any occasion as I need it. Or if I realize I need to drop a card in the mail that day, I can quickly paint one up and send it off.

Recently Read

The Rescue Artist

by Edward Dolnick

An excellent book my husband and I read out loud to each other. We both enjoyed this book.

Perhaps it's not a too recently read, I think we read it over the summer. But it is definitely worth mentioning here!

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Paint Fresh from the Tube

Sometimes you gotta work out of the box. Take a break from what you normally do. I prefer to squeeze my watercolor paints into a nicely arranged palette allow them to dry and set up before using. Do you do the same? Then today's tip is just for you!

Squeeze a little fresh watercolor paint out onto your palette.

Create a painting using fresh from the tube watercolor paint!

What do you notice that is different?

Perhaps, you'll find it easier to get certain colors to go dark.

Are you someone who's watercolors are normally rather pale?

Splurge a little today, test out what it's like to paint with watercolor paint fresh from the tube.

Enjoy and have fun with it.

Trophy Puppy and Siblings

Trophy Puppy (on the left) visits his sister (in the middle) and his big brother (on the right). Although he was the smallest and last to be born in the litter, he has now grown bigger than his sister. His big brother is still the biggest.

I love the floppy ear! I think if he keeps it floppy, he can get away with doing silly puppy things a lot longer. Once that ear stays up, he's gonna have to start acting like a big dog.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Stuck Watercolor Paint Tube Caps

Haven't painted in a while?

Haven't opened that tube of paint to fill up your palette?

Finding you've got yourself a well stuck cap?

I lay the tube of paint on my table top and squeeze all the paint towards the cap with my fingers. If you have one of those fancy little paint tube gadgets you can use that too. With all the paint towards the top of the tube, you have a sturdier tube of paint to grasp and you won't be twisting the tube into a pretzel. Try now to twist off the cap.

If that does not help. Soak the top of the watercolor tube of paint in a little dish of warm water. This may loosen up and soften some of the dried up paint that is keeping the cap in place. Using a painting rag to dry and hold the tube, again try to twist off the cap.

I rarely get a stuck cap, but these methods have always helped me.

Some people have had to use a small plier to twist off the cap after soaking. Just remember to squeeze all the paint close to the cap so you have a greater mass to hold onto.

Recently Read

Remember Me?

by Sophie Kinsella

I love her shopaholic series! And I love this book too. It's light and funny. I enjoy her style of writing and humor.

Tuesdays Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for watercolor painting is back!

The Brushes are Ready & Waiting!

First tip of the new year ... just paint!

It's about time you start painting again or perhaps it's time to start painting period. Winter is a great time to paint.

Get out your brushes, paper, watercolor paint, a bowl of water. Find a comfy place to sit and spread out your supplies. Dip those brushes in water, then load the brushes up with paint and swash it all across your paper.

Paint with no abandon!

A New Year

Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday to Me!

A new year, another birthday, a new beginning ...

My birthday was last wednesday.

Today our puppy turns 8 months old.

I baked a batch of cupcakes this afternoon and tried to take a photo of him with one cupcake and of course ... he bit it!

I've got new plans for my blog this year.

I want to add posts of jewelry people have created using my torch fired enameled beads. I want to bring back the Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting. Keep it going regularly again. I've done a few posts on recently read books, I want to do more of that as well.

Other new plans for the new year ... I'd like to create step by step tutorials for watercolor painting and have them available for sale.

Before the bite.

If I shake your hand, can I have another bite? Please?

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

-----

For this year's Christmas card, I hand painted japanese paper with watercolor paint. For the tree I used a variety of greens, blues and purple. While wet, I splattered in some yellows and verzino violet. When dry, I splattered on some gold gauche. For the trunk I used various shades of brown.

After the very thin and fragile japanese paper was completely dry. I trimmed the paper into strips. My husband cut the strips of green into triangles while I sliced the trunks into squares. I adhered each trunk and tree onto watercolor note cards and allowed them all to dry overnight.

The next day, I signed the cards and hand wrote little notes inside each and every card. I hand addressed all the envelopes as well. I simply love a handwritten Christmas card and envelope. It's a little gift in itself.

Acrylic on Canvas

I am contemplating painting more of this type of seascape.

I love it!

Acrylic on Canvas

24" x 36"

What do you think?

Beading Joy

I was finally able to break out the torch again yesterday and created a bunch of amazing beads. Today, I photographed a bunch of those beads and the photos came out fantastic if I do say so myself.

I absolutely love this trio of beads ... almost kept them for myself.

These torch fired metal beads coated in glass enamel are so unbelievably lightweight. Perfect for creating a statement necklace! Or use one as the focal point of a necklace and create a matching pair of earrings.

I turned a set of these same beads, same colors into a pair of earrings and I love them! They really are lightweight. I wear them a lot.

You can find these Mission Lavender Pinks in my Squier Etsy Shop.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thank you!

Etsy Front Page

It's so exciting to find out one of my paintings was featured on the front page of Etsy.com. A wonderful Etsy jewelry designer, Kelsey, alerted me of this delight.

Take a peek at Kelsey's Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/kelseysimmen

Thank you Kelsey!

Handmade Cigar Box Guitar

Cigar Box Guitar No. 34

Padron 4000 Blonde Cigar Box

It's one of my favorites!

My husband, Michael does an awesome job building these cigar box guitars. He hand carves the neck from a fallen black walnut tree that used to stand in his parents' backyard. He carves the neck with vintage tools. The necks are fretless and the markers are burned in. This helps to create an usual and unique playing experience.

The cigar box guitars have three strings. It can be played acoustically or plugged into an amp.

This would make an awesome gift to yourself or someone special!

Find this one and more in the Cigar Box Guitar and Amp section of our Etsy Shop:

http://squier.etsy.com

You can hear a sound clip of one of his cigar box guitars:

http://squierdesign.com/country_boy_guitars.html

You will even find a music video at the bottom of this page where one of his CBGs is played!

First Place Baby Puppy Class

Yesterday, we took our little 4 1/2 month old puppy to his first German Shepherd Dog Show. To our surprise our little Boo won the First Place Trophy in the 3 to 6 Month Old Baby Puppy Class.

Will this be his one and only dog show?

We haven't decided that yet.

I wish he could stay this size!