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How to Get Comfortable with Your Watercolors
Are you new to watercolor paints or have recently purchased a new set of watercolors? Watercolors are a wonderful medium but every new color or set of colors can take time to get used to. The colors may act differently than what you’re accustomed to, which can cause frustration. So how do you get comfortable with a new set of watercolors? I recently purchased a new set of Russian watercolor paints called White Nights at my local art store. I wanted to share with you my process and the exercises I use to get familiar with the paints and color combinations. We’ll be creating a simple watercolor painting in our…
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Easy Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Techniques for Beginners
If you are new to watercolor and learning wet-on-wet watercolor techniques, watercolor can sometimes feel challenging. You may feel like you have no control over your brush or your watercolor paint. Today we’ll cover the basics of wet-on-wet watercolor techniques for beginners to help you get great results every time! Hop-A-Long Studio is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more. The Problem The problem with wet-on-wet watercolor is how do we control the water? When I was new to watercolor painting, a lot of my projects ended up looking like colored blobs instead of landscapes, clouds,…
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How to use Watercolors with Stencils
Using watercolors with stencils may seem like two things that don’t go together in your art journal. The loose nature of watercolor appears incompatible with stencils. But with a bit of experimentation and imagination, you can get some amazing and unexpected results using watercolors with stencils. Hop-A-Long Studio is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more. Adding Watercolors to Stencils When adding watercolors to stencils, you may need to change your expectation for the final result. When using acrylic paints, gel or paste mediums with stencils, the medium can be applied, and the stencil removed immediately.…
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Watercolor Landscape Paint Along
Today’s project is a watercolor landscape paint along using gouache. I love using landscapes in my art journal pages. Creating landscapes is great practice for understanding how different art mediums work together. For this watercolor paint along we will be using colored pencils, acrylic paint, gouache, and ink to make a dynamic mixed media art journal page. What is Gouache? If you have never used gouache in a project, it is an opaque watercolor medium. It has similar pigments and binders as watercolor paints, but includes a white filler, such as chalk, which makes these paints opaque. Gouache provides a different result than watercolor. The opaque nature of the paint…
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Coloring with Inks and Watercolor Crayons
Coloring with inks and watercolor crayons is an essential part of a creative self-care practice. By learning to color with these mediums, they will teach you many things. This includes how these mediums blend, how they react with certain papers and surfaces, and how you can incorporate them as layers within your mixed media projects. Caran d’Ache Watercolor Crayons A new product in my art practice is the Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Watercolor crayons. I had originally purchased these to use in my acrylic painting classes. They are a very useful when creating basic sketches on canvas. But watercolor crayons have many more uses than just sketching out images.…
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How to Paint a Night Sky
This week we will be learning how to paint a night sky using watercolor paint. This is one of my favorite self-care exercises as it is simple and so relaxing. What makes learning how to paint a night sky so fun is this technique can be used with other colors and other applications. This provides practice and an understanding on what colors you can create from blending watercolor paints. The Inspiration The inspiration for this project was thinking about the warm summer days when I can get out of the city and see the stars. I love the night sky, there is something about the expanse of it that is…
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Valentines Art Journal Page
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, so today I will be sharing a Valentines art journal page using watercolor. Valentine’s Day can be an interesting holiday, but for many of us, it can bring some mixed feelings. Some of us really enjoy the celebration of love and connection. But Valentine’s Day can also have feelings of pressure to have the perfect experience or life. Instead of focusing on Valentine’s Day specifically in this journal page, we will be discussing the topic of love. Thinking About Love When we think about love, what is love truly about? Love can sometimes feel like the forced display of affection on Valentine’s Day…
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Mixed Media Art Journal Project “Grow”
Do you ever struggle with bringing different mixed media products together on a page? In this week’s tutorial I will be demonstrating how to do so in this mixed media art journal project “Grow”. In this project we will be using watercolor, Brusho Crystal Colours and pastes through stencils to make a colorful and dynamic art journal page. The Intention I usually start every art journal project with an intention for the project. Sometimes, it is something as simple as trying out a new art product or image. Other times it is a thought, word, or idea to work through as I create. Sometimes it is hard to know where…
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How to use Watercolor Pencils
Have you ever wondered how to use watercolor pencils? If you have not tried using watercolor pencils in your artwork or crafting projects, they are a very easy and fun medium. What are Watercolor Pencils? What are watercolor pencils? Watercolor pencils look like a colored pencil and they write and color very similarly. The big difference is that they are also water soluble. What this means is when you draw and blend with a watercolor pencil and add layers of color to your work. You can come in after applying the color and add in water to blend and intensify the color. How are Watercolor Pencils Different than Watercolor Paints?…
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3 Ways to Use Brusho Crystal Colours
As part of building Creative Foundations in our artistic practice, I will be demonstrating 3 ways to use Brusho Crystal Colours. These powders are a versatile medium that can be used in multiple applications including cards, journal projects and watercolor projects. What are Brusho Crystal Colours? Brusho Crystal Colours are highly pigmented watercolor crystals. These crystals can be used in a variety of ways including mixing with water to make a watercolor paint and sprinkled onto surfaces and misted to create interesting patterns. What makes them such an interesting product is that there are multiple colors of crystals within each color. This means that a green color will not just…
The Art of Self-Care
