Hello and welcome crafty friends!
I'm Smitha Katti I blog at SmilingColors.com but many of you know me as @theshinynest on
instagram!
I love exploring and trying out new watercolor techniques and today I am trying out how to
Watercolor by dropping in color.
In this video I will show you two lettering projects using different products that give
completely different results.
I'll also share a simpler flower project at the end of the video- this one is much
easier and creates the softest looking watercolor flowers and leaves.
So lets dive in and get started.
I'm going to first show you how I lettered this multi colored "happy" word.
For this technique I used watercolor cakes and a water brush or an aqua brush.
You can try this with any watercolor palette you have at home- even your kids art supplies.
The brush though needs to be a good one.
I am using the water brush that was included along with these watercolors I am using- these
are the Kol watercolors by Sakura.
On my blog I will recommend a few other paint brushes that I like using to letter with.
For this technique, you start by literally lettering your word using just water.
I am going to letter my word alphabet by alphabet.
Then I am adding water to my colors and dropping the watery colors onto my alphabet.
I used three of for colors here- two reds, and orange and a yellow.
The yellow helped add a great pop of contrast.
Since you have lettered the alphabet shape in water first, the colors that you drop will
spread only along those letters.
If you add too little water, the colors wont move freely, if you add too much water, the
water and eventually the color will end up pooling at one certain point.
You can use your brush to move the colors a bit and blend them or push them to where
you want.
But I found out that trying to control the color flow isn't necessary really, the colors
blend and dry in their own time and always end up looking good.
Even through I am using a water brush, i often dip my brush into a bowl of water instead
of squeezing it, just so that I have a greater control of the water that is applied to the
paper.
So for this example I used a mixed media sketch book, this one was a medium weight Strathmore
one, but I felt that this technique needed a bit more of a heavier paper to really enjoy
the wateriness.
So with that, lets put this sketchbook aside to dry, I will show you how it looks at the
end of the video and meanwhile let's dive into the Technique no 2.
This one turned out to be a favorite of mine.
This time I have a sturdier paper and I am using Tombow Dual brush pens.
Actually, just one brush pen- color number 857.
This is a great maroony pinkish red.
I am scribbling some of the marker color onto a blending palette, if you don't have the
palette, any kind of plastic slick surface will do. and I am going to try dropping in
just one color this time.
In the previous example I felt there was just too many colors trying to co exist happily,
so this time I simplified.
And I kept my water a bit murky, this way I think it will be much easier for you to
see the water lettering on camera.
So I started the same way, I lettering in the alphabet using just water, and then I
picked up some color and dropped it in.
Since these Dual brush pens have a water based pigment in them, they react beautifully in
such techniques.
How cute is this looking already.
By dripping in just one color this time I am getting more tones and hues of that color
as it blends and settles into the water.
As I move forward with my word, I do go back and add more color to areas is I feel like
there is a blank spot.
As long as you can see the water pooled on your paper you can keep adding color to it.
When you join your letters as you go forward, you will see the water and color blend and
move beautifully.
This is such a fun technique to just watch come alive.
I highly urge you to try it once atleast!!
This technique though is really popular with the liquid concentrated water colors like
the Ph Martins ones.
You can alternately try this with just a basic ink bottle or even more fun with liquid food
coloring.
How fun would that be.
Okay, now while our second attempt dries as well, I am going to quickly try to paint some
flowers using the color dropping method.
This time again I have a heavy watercolor paper- I will link to all the supplies I use
on my blog post and I will let you know where you can easily find htem.
96 colors of pure joy.
I pulled out all of my tomboys to choose from today.
This time I also have a paper towel on hand- I'll tell you why in a moment.
As like before, I start to paint with water.
This time instead of alphabets I am painting petals of a flower here.
You can't really see it but the water is there.
I am creating a color palette of sorts by scribbling my color onto my blending palette
and then I am picking up the color onto my brush with some water- starting with my lightest
color.
I drop in the lightest color towards the outer edges of the petals, then I add the next color
to the middle of the petals and the darkest colors to the center of the flower.
This is basically known as the wet on wet technique.
You wet the paper and then add wet paint to it.
This allows the wet paint to spread and blend in a slightly controlled manner.
Now I didn't like the areas where the water started to pool too much.
So I just used the tip of the paper towel to absorb some of the excess water off.
You will be removing the color as well so you will have to go back and add a bit more.
Let me show you another flower.
Now I need to add more color to my palette here for the next flower- Never bring your
tomboys directly into a watery surface.
I always wipe my palette clean and remove any trace of water before scribbling more
color onto it.
This way you wont ruin your tombow markers.
725 847 747 679
For this flower, I moved my camera a bit so that you can have a closer look at the technique.
I am following the exact same steps- paint the petals with water and then drop in the
colors.
Add the lightest colors towards the outer edges of the petals and add the darker colors
towards the center.
The colors will blend and create a soft flowery look and feel.
173 528 277 Now I am going to paint a few leaves quickly, making sure that the leaves
don't touch the wet flowers.
The leaves are just scattered on the outside.
I am speeding it up here, just so that you can see how it comes together, but really
I am repeating the same few steps as before.
I will also leave the exact colors numbers of the Tombow Markers I used in this example,
in case you want to recreate this yourself.
Make sure you stop by my blog for that.
Here is a closer look at how this looks while it is still wet.
I went back and added a little more of the darker color to the center of the flower.
Bur really I loved how this looked and I just put this to the side to dry with the others.
Now lets take a close look at how they all dried.
Here is the first one - The word happy with the Sakura Koi watercolors.
The colors all blended as they dried, but you can clearly see tiny minuscule dots of
the color pigment just dried onto the paper.
Kinda looks like salt.
It doesn't look bad, it has a bi too tie dye look to it but this definitely wasn't the
result I had in mind.
What do you guys think?
Was this a hit or a miss?
Here is how the second one dried.
This one was using the Tombow Dual brush pen and this one looks so pretty!
There are areas of light color, darker areas where the color pooled and honestly I am in
love with how this looks.
This was easy to create and adds such a simple wow factor when done.
Definitely will be doing more of these in the future.
Here is now the flowers dried, The smaller flower dried beautifully, but the larger flower
is just ok according to me.
This just shows how its important to have a uniform layer of water on the paper, if
there is too much water in just one area the color gets washed out rather than blend.
If there is too little water the colors just sit and wont move or blend.
You just need to find the right balance in between.
But I really felt that these flowers just needed another layer of color and I fiddled
with it a bit more and this is what I ended up with.
The centers got a darker shade that just contrasts nicely and just brings a new depth to the
flower.
I used whatever watercolors I had on hand and I will list and link all of the art supplies
I used in todays video in the youtube description box below this video and also over at my blog
www.smilingcolors.com.
Thank you for watching this video, please hit the subscribe button to my youtube channel
for more fun art and lettering videos and
Let me know in the comments below if you are inspired to give this technique a try!
And definitely please share a photo with me on social media if you create something from
this tutorial.
Tag me @theshinynest because I love seeing your art!
I hope you have a great day and happy crafting!
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