Watercolors Again

Before the Christmas holidays, I took a couple classes at Art of the Carolinas.  I finished both paintings from the classes I took. Then I invested in some good watercolors and brushes.  I bought my brushes from Karlyn Holman's gallery store.  She has her own line of brushes.


Yesterday, I got my painting supplies back out and took over the kitchen table.

The weather was finally above freezing, and my sweet husband was outside washing my car.  Not that it needed it- hasn't been washed since before Thanksgiving!  Kasey watched out the window.  Her reddish-gold hair shines in the sun.

The last time I painted, I had started a second hollyhock painting, just like the one we did in Karlyn's class, but on a quarter sheet of watercolor paper instead of half.  I had done background underpainting, stencil and collage.  I used the Negative Hollyhocks "Karlyn's Kit."


I added negative painting around the drawn shapes, and then painted in more dark shapes resembling leaves, stems, and buds.

Then, I painted in the leaves, stems, and flowers.  I did not refer to my previous painting or my photos, books, or DVD of my instructor, Karlyn Holman.  I just did it. I wanted to see if I remembered what we did in class.

Not too bad!  I sort of covered up my "path of light," but I did better on "losing the edge."  Using good paintbrushes helped.


Here is my first attempt next to the second attempt.

The second attempt does not have the glow of the first one, but I like it.

You can purchase line drawings with painting instructions and step-outs from Karlyn Holman.  I purchased several at Art of the Carolinas back in November.  I had already traced the line drawing for Negative White Roses onto a full sheet of Arches 140-lb. cold-pressed paper. 

 First step:  wet front and back of paper, and add light colors for an underpainting.
Next: sand watercolor pencils over a stencil to add interest to background.
Third:  tear small pieces of Japanese paper and add randomly over painting.  When all this is dry, glue the paper down with Yes! paste.


Pretty!

Here is a close-up of the Japanese paper collage.  It picks up color from the background paint and the paste.  Karlyn also sells the  paper at her store.

Next, do some negative painting around the shapes.  Draw some more leaves and buds and negative paint around everything with a darker green mix.

Now I am ready for the flowers!