Welcome to TIPS ON TUESDAYS…..
But first, feast your eyes on this pot of gold!
From IRELAND come Irish note cards, tea towel, luggage tags, lavender (yes, there is lavender in Ireland, too), a fabulous scarf AND TWO paintings from my own Ireland journal pages!
We’re splitting the LOOT between four lucky winners…..and they are:
- Rosita Henley
- Von Reeder
- Janet Payne
- Kim Schmidt Borneman
Congratulations to all of ye! Thanks to everyone for reading and for taking the time to comment. I’ve read every one of them! We wanted to give a little something to everyone of you who commented, so we’re giving you each a coupon for a free packet from my website….which doesn’t seem like a good deal to me when you have to pay the shipping. So, we aren’t putting an expiration date on the coupon, so you could use it anytime you’re placing an order and just add on the free packet. Your coupon will be coming to you by Friday. Keep an eye open for it!
And now for the lesson….POPPIES!
This is a fun technique that looks good every time. So, I hope that you’ll paint along.
Here’ what you’ll need:
SURFACE TO PAINT ON: 8 x 10 piece of watercolor paper – any brand will do, but I’ve used 140 lb. cold pressed & Newton
BRUSHES: Large Flat watercolor brush, smaller flat or round and a liner brush. Don’t go out and buy new brushes…use what you have. Brushes you use for acrylic paint will work, too!
COLORS: I use W&N paint, but use whatever brand you have. You’ll need a red, orange, yellow and blue. I’ve used: Quinacridone Red, Cadmium Orange, New Gamboge, Ultramarine Blue. You’ll also need a bit of white gesso, or other fluid white acrylic paint – the kind that comes in a bottle already thinned. There are many companies that carry this type of paint….Golden fluid, Delta, etc.
NEEDLE BOTTLE: Here are a couple of different bottles that you could use for this and photos of each of them.
1. Cut your watercolor paper to 8 x 10″ and draw your poppies onto it lightly with a pencil. Poppies come in all shapes and sizes, Yours do NOT have to be perfectly drawn to look great. So, give it a try and don’t be so hard on yourself about your drawing (yes, I can read your mind)!
2. Fill the needle bottle with the fluid acrylic or gesso, staight from the bottle. Then test it. See if you can actually squeeze out a little of the paint. If it doesn’t come out, it’s too thick…add A LITTLE BIT of water and try again. Got it? You’re ready to move on……
3. This first photo is a bit difficult to see, but if you look very close at the white watercolor paper, you’ll notice that I’ve used the needle bottle to trace the white acrylic over all of my poppy drawing. Just in case you can’t see it, I’ve done a small bit onto black paper, too. This shows what the drawing will look like. You can see, it’s a bit raised – but it’s definitey not perfect. Some places may be thinner and others thicker. Such is the needle bottle. Don’t worry….let it dry completely…..then move on…..
4. Now mix up piles of three of four (medium value) color: a red mix, an orange mix and also a bit of green (mix your blue and yellow together). When you have all colors mixed, wet your paper thoroughly. Look for an even shine.
5. This next part will seem scary, because we’re going to put all of these wet colors onto the paper at the same time! Relax. Use your large flat brush (perhaps a one inched?) and pick up a brush full of the red mix and completely cover the top of the wet paper and the poppies, too. Then pull a bit of it down below the poppies. Now quickly, before the paper loses it’s shine, pick up the orange and drop some into a couple of places on the background and a poppy or two….then also below the poppies.
Finally, pick up just a small bit of the green and place a stroke or two at the bottom of the paper.
Because these colors are all wet, they will run together and edges will soften. THAT’S OKAY!
Take a breathe and notice that the poppy design that you drew in with the needle bottle is now showing up – and looks mighty great! As a matter of fact, the darker your background color the better the poppies will look! STOP painting before the paper loses the shine. I bet you’ll want to play, but don’t do it! Just let it all stay as is and dry thoroughly.
6. Now we’ll begin to put in a bit of detail and make the piece more interesting. Be sure the paper is dry. Then use a pencil and draw a square (or rectangle, or circle) around a portion of the poppies. I’ve drawn a square around the poppies at the left, from the top of the paper down over about three of them.
7. Now, take some of that fluid white acrylic paint and a small brush and fill in that square. Paint the white in AROUND any of the poppies or stems that cross into that square (or rectangle or circle). Let it all dry.
PHEW! I think that’s it for today. If you can complete this in the next few days, then come back on Tuesday for the remainder of this lesson. Also, in the meantime, feel free to ask any questions that you might have about this first portion.
See you on Tuesday!
xoxo
Kathie
What fun this is going to be!☺
How fun! Can’t wait to try it!
Love this! I am going to try this. Reminds me of silk painting.
Absolutely lovely and so free flowing. I am going to do this tonight! Kathie, thanks so much for sharing! Be blessed, and I am looking forward to more!
This is really great and I can’t wait to start. I just got my order yesterday with the video and the pattern packet “Maid in the Shade” which I have wanted for some time and was so please to see you now have. It looks and sounds like you had a really great time in Ireland. Glad you’re back home safe and sound.
I can’t wait to try this. Need to go and find the needle bottle.
Thanks!! This is so much fun!! Can’t wait for the next post!!
Looking forward to working on this tomorrow. Thank you for teaching us new techniques. Glad you had a safe trip home.
you make it look easy and fun. cant wait to try it.
Gosh, I’m just back home from a workshop and am surprised to see all of your comments! I hope you’ve had a chance to give it a try. I’m writing the finishing steps for this project this evening and we’ll post it tomorrow!
Kathie: Could you use Miskit instead of the white gesso paint?
New to watercolours, don’t understand, no6 and 7. Also the white gesso, is this the normal gesso watered down. Thank you I do won’t to try this for my bedroom. Carmel
Hi kathie,
I wrote a question a few days ago and am not sure I sent it correctly.
I’m a retired teacher of folk and decorative art, also a .T.D.A. With the society of decorative painters. I go to as many conferences as possible, however living in Australia and been in the age of wisdom, white hair and 74, closer to 75 I find travelling long distances on an airplanes very difficult, however did get to the Chicargo conference this year.
As I’m now retired I have started to venture out into different mediums .
This is why I love your page so much, the lessons are exciting and exactly were I want to go.
So as I’m very new to water colors, my first question is on the poppies.
Remember that some painting items have different names in Australia.
I don’t understand step 6 & 7 of the poppies.
Also the papers you mentioned with the cottage and mixed papers, would rice paper be ok.
Thank for your time, I will be using email, but first have to work out how it works.
Your carmel
Hi Kathie: I just got my bottles from Cheap Joes, I hope to give this a try soon I was at the FBN art association demo class this morning and one of the ladies demoed this process. but hers seemed to come out fairly fat. I would like a smaller line. I bought two sizes med and small. As soon as things get back to normal here I want to give it a try.
Hello to all! I’m new to blogging, so I didn’t realize that people can make comments many days after the post! duh. So,let me anwer your questions.
First, T.Kay – yes, you could use miskit but the look would be different….but still good! It would work!
Now Carmel, first off THANK YOU so much for your kind comments. I can’t tell you how nice it is to hear someone is enjoying the blog. So, let’s talk about steps 6 and 7 of the poppies. What I did was to draw a box around the poppy in the top left corner. THen I filled in that entire box (around the poppy, of course) with white acrylic. That’s it. I could’ve explained that a bit better. I made it sound more difficult that it actually is!
Secondly, yes, by all means you can use rice papers for the collage. As a matter of fact, that would be a good blog post – how to color your own rice paper. MAybe next time?
And Marilyn, the reason the linework from the bottle looked ‘flat’ is because there was a bit too much water in the paint. It’s not really the size of the bottle. A bit too much water makes the paint run and flatten out. So, use paint that is thin enough to come out thru the needle, but no thinner. If your paint is automatically thin as it comes from the container, then yes, do use a smaller needle.
I hope this all makes sense and I hope that you’ll make some beautiful pieces!
Thanks kathie,
I thought you had forgotten me, like you I’m new to iPads, so didn’t realise answer was at the bottom of the page, now I will give it a go, wish me luck. Many thanks Carmel