Watercolor Gift

Watercolors are not something I would normally think of using to create collages or sculptures … but being a creative person with a grandson turning 12 years old tomorrow … I wanted to create something … unique … just for him.

This week … I got out a piece of 18 x 24 – 140 lb piece of watercolor paper. I used an artist sea sponge to pounce pthalo blue tube watercolors all over the paper. I set it aside to dry. While this was drying, I got out a 16 x 20 with 11 x 14 cutout mat board and a piece of 12 x 15 – 140 lb watercolor paper and used artist tape to secure the paper to the back of the mat frame.

I created a rudimentary landscape background on the paper thru the 11 x 14 matboard opening – I used watercolor pencils, india inks and acrylic inks.

Then I used a red Inktense watercolor pencil on a piece of 90 lb watercolor paper to create …. something … I cut around it very closely …. then I laid my “something” down on another piece of 90 lb watercolor paper. I then held the cutout down while using a brush to wet smear the watercolor pencil on the something and also into shape around on teh under paper layer. Then after it dried … I cut around the larger shape and glued my something to the larger shape.

Then on another piece of 90 lb watercolor paper, I created something else … I used water to wet the paint and get a variety of color shadings in the shape that I created. I then cut it out of hte paper VERY closely and glued it onto the landscape background paper.

There is more … and I am not posting pictures today – I will after he opens his present … and I will be creating / posting a free ebook about making it. This was more of a scrapbooking type project than a fine art painting or sculpture… my goal was to create something fun that would be unique for his 12th birthday – I am still working on his card – it is drying now – I do not expect this to be a museum piece but one never knows what posterity will bring to an artwork.

Most importantly … I had a great time creating it!

This is the low res version for web page viewing:

Ages ago, my friend Kristin Fox of Art of Foxvox mentioned Illustration Friday and how much fun it was to participate … I did not join way back then then … mostly because I did not have enough confidence in my “drawing” or “illustration” skills … I told myself that since I am not an illustrator and my drawings consist of “sketches” and “sketching” that I was NOT a candidate for Illustration Friday … well … sometimes as an artist, I can be my own worst critic… lol … that was before I discovered watercolor pencils and started getting serious about using them in my painting process.

Being visually impaired – no depth perception and right-eye uncorrectable blur that cannot read even the Big E on the eye chart – and being incredibly klumsy-klutzy – those were only two issues in my way of being a hard core drawing illustrator … and jr high “art teachers” in my youth were NOT prone to wasting their time on a kid that could not do what they were told … then add the fact that what goes into my eyes and brain ALWAYS come out … changed … even if only just a little bit

This drawing is available in my Imagekind Gallery as fine art prints.

Opinion by Barbara Burns

I’ve spent a couple years or so now using my watercolor pencils and having a great time just sketching and drawing with them … when suddenly this week, I realized that I am good enough to participate in Illustration Fridays too … so I joined and here is my very first Illustration Friday drawing.

Opinions … some grow with bumps and lumps towards the sky and bursting forth with gorgeous fireworks … while others take root in the soil of our lives to anchor us into the daily grind … and sometimes the sky thoughts and flights harmonize perfectly engaging with the roots to make a stunning new picture of ourselves that sets us free from self imposed chains of earthly mediocrity and changes us in our own view from a weed to a flower in the sunshine.