Hey friends, hope you are having a great week! I can’t believe we are already a quarter of the way through 2017. It feels like New Year’s was last month. For those of you that missed my announcement, I’m doing watercolor this month! And like basically any new hobby I try to do, I realize quickly that it’s a lot harder than it looks.

For my supplies, I ordered:

•  Sakura XNCW-12h, 12 Assorted Watercolors Field Sketch Set with Brush – this has 12 watercolors in a small palette and I’m liking it so far
• Pentel Arts Aquash Water Brush Assorted Tips, Pack of 3 – still getting the hang of these, but I like that the water is in the barrel
• Canson XL Series watercolor Pad, Side Wire 7″X10″ – unfortunately I was advised not to use my Rhodia pad for lettering since it was too thin, but this one has a nice thick weight to it

After watching a few videos, I decided that it would be best to test the colors and try to figure out what colors they create when mixed. Just to show you how much of a newbie I am, I kept trying to type in “palette” to help me figure out how to set it up, when I should have been searching for mixing chart. Anyways, I decided I could probably figure out this part on my own at least, so I made a grid and decided to combine each and every color.

I made a few mistakes, namely not writing the colors before painting (see how it blended into white), outlining the grid with pen instead of pencil, smearing paint (oops) and losing track of which colors were next. Hence all the arrows all over my chart. Although it looks messy, it took me over an hour to do, so I didn’t want to redo it! This chart will just have to do.

Once I got the color chart, I decided to try out a variety of flowers. The tall roses are from Wonder Forest’s Watercolor Roses Tutorial. I also tried Jay Lee’s tulip video – I love his channel because he plays relaxing music while he paints and titles his videos with the expertise level you’re at. He also paints while holding his baby! I attempted to do Crafty Sue Lau’s watercolor rose tutorial, but it didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. I’m still learning my way around the brush pens! The blue flower was something of a trial of my pen, so just pretend that isn’t there 🙂

Lastly, I did this watercolor basic painting of flowers from Jay Lee – I really liked how it turned out for my first week of painting!

In case any of you are interesting in learning watercolor with me, here are a few of the resources I’ve checked out (many of which have been recommended to me by people who actually watercolor).

Online classes:

• Amanda Arneill resource library
• Skillshare.com classes
• Strathmore – Brush Lettering and Watercolor by Jess Park

Youtubers:

• Anna Mason Art
• Jay Lee Watercolor Painting
• K Werner Design
• Sandy Allnock
• The Frugal Crafter
• Watercolor Misfit
• Wonder Forest

I hope you guys enjoyed my first watercolor post! I think I have a lot to learn this month, but I’m excited to see what I can do! See you on Friday for Friday Favorites!