No, I did not go up in three beautiful hot air balloons. Not in my REAL life, anyway. I watched several youtube videos. The Mind of Watercolor  explained how to create simple clouds, just painting a wet wash and lifting with a crumpled paper towel, smoothing a bit with a clean wet round brush:

I am already comfortable with this technique, but to be honest am still learning which pigments stain and which lift (lifting being crucial to the success of this technique) so tried it with both A. Gallo’s Lapis Lazuli and Daniel Smith’s Cerulean. (both non staining, very liftable) The Lapis Lazuli is basically ultramarine, but a very light, fragile color. Cerulean is also light, although can be laid down a little heavier than the Lapis. They both worked fine, just slightly different colors. Then I watched several videos by CreationsCeecee  … Her art is fun and her videos inspire me to play.

I tried a fun prickly flower, on the left, using colored pencil and watercolor. Colored pencils can provide a very nice accent:

and balloons on the right, with watercolor and ink:

I love artists showing me HOW to do what they do, and not minding if I copy to learn. Go try some!

I wasn’t trying to make the full page a picture, but was working in 4 quadrants. However, the right side kinda turned into one cohesive sketch, so I should have done that on the left as well!