For Carl and Ruby, of course.
Saturday 3/10/2018 the last Dickson treehouse
Tag: treehouse
Thurs 3/8/2018 another treehouse! And a new favorite Daniel Smith green
One for each grandchild. They are brighter in person,
Both use Daniel Smith paints on Canson XL 140 lb watercolor paper. . This paper isn’t ideal, but at under $10 for 30 9×12 inch sheets, it is A deal. (33 cents a sheet!) Paper IS important, though, and will affect your experience with watercolor, and your result, so it depends on what you are doing. I don’t recommend this brand for anything involved or traditional very wet on wet techniques… It’s good to try different types and see what feels best.
I buy the Canson on sale and keep it around for simple craft projects, for making swatch pages of my paints, making cards, testing colors, doing ink drawings, etc. And I use more expensive brands for more involved things. I’m still learning what supplies are best. I prefer keeping things in journals right now, so I can observe growth and development, and refer back to previous pieces easily, but we can talk journals later!
These aren’t as bright and vivid as I’d hoped but I must say, the green color,Daniel Smith’s Green Apatite Genuine, is amazing! I love it! It granulates into interesting green and brown particles… I can see this will be great for foliage. On Amazon right now it is about $11 for the 15 ml tube… and also $11 for the 5 ml tube, so don’t buy the tiny one!!
(I am part of the Amazon Affiliates group… Any purchases made through these links gives me a few cents, but doesn’t cost you anything extra, and I only link things I use and enjoy. I shop at Amazon all the time myself, but I check prices everywhere and if I find them cheaper somewhere else I’ll include that link instead! Always price check, as prices change every day!)
Wednesday 3/7/2018 watercolor treehouse
I think I like QoR better for the leaves, because of the way the paints spread and flow. But the daniel smith blue (cerulean blue chromium) and green (green apatite genuine) granulate so prettily on this picture. Really nobody has such beautiful and interesting granulating colors as DS. (I tried to make a taped off border, which worked except the tape tore the page. I even rubbed it on my jeans first so it wouldn’t be so sticky.)
This is for my granddaughter, by request.
Day 266 (Sun Sept 24) ATCs
Artist Trading Cards… 2 1/2×3 1/2 inches. Treehouses. The fronts, top and right using daniel smith paints, bottom left using qor…
The backs… one unfinished, the school house uses Jane davenport mermaid watercolor markers (they are really a waterbased color in a waterbrush) Vivid colors, difficult for me to control, and they lift off a bit too easily, but quite fun. I think they’d be great for something larger, especially art journal pages, or calligraphy. The country store uses daniel smith.
Oh, and about halfway through I found this gift from my newfoundland dog dripping off my table right in front of me. I don’t know how I didn’t get slimed. Don’t get a newfie if you can’t handle the Sloober. He’s not allowed in my studio alone, but he snuck in a bit earlier. Obviously. That Sloober would literally be there in a week if I hadn’t removed it… looking like a thick shiny… dried… disgusting hangy thingy… I tried it once just to see. Ugh.
Day 247 (Mon Sept 4) finished ATC set
I forgot to finish these, and left the masking fluid on one for several days (it should come off within 24 hours) It still removed easily and did no damage. It is that Molotow masking pen, 2mm… (link here)… and does really well on tiny spaces.
Remember, and ATC (artist trading card) is 2 1/2 ” x 3 1/2 “… a very small space for painting a lot of detail. How many watercolored ATCs do you think are equal to a set of hand knitted or crocheted fingerless gloves?? It’s a swap, and I feel like 4 is not nearly enough.
Day 242 (Wed Aug 30) ATC work
SO CLOSE. But not finished yet. My goodness these are tiny. (And hard to work on.) You’d think they’d be finished so quickly!
Day 238 (Sat Aug 26) Tiniest little yellow treehouse
The last of the Yellow Treehouses for a while!
Day 236 (Thurs Aug 24) Middle Sized yellow treehouse
Ok, look how cool the green paint at the bottom acted… it just GREW ITSELF into tall grasses! I think a tiny yellow treehouse next…? [ I have “commissions” for four separate people waiting to be started… why don’t I work on THOSE?? (I think I’m afraid of disappointing myself or the people who asked for them…) ] Read on only if you want info on the colors I used. 🙂
I’m using Qor paints, and also these Daniel Smith watercolors… I love all three of these colors, particularly the Undersea Green. Mixed with just a touch of Daniel Smith’s sap green it is really extraordinary in my opinion, and I love it in those trees. The Undersea Green with just the tiniest touch of Qor Manganese Blue (which I purchased at Jerry’s Artarama in town nearby, because I couldn’t find it on Amazon :), makes the blooming grassy area in this treehouse… I turned the paper upside down and let gravity help. (a little hint… painting on an easel makes a big difference!) And the sky is the Qor Manganese Blue.
The Qor colors bleed and develop into the most interesting patterns. They are really REALLY fun to use… if you haven’t tried them yet, consider starting with the Qor High Chroma watercolor set , the colors are fabulous, and the purple in it is what I have enjoyed using in the trees so often. The pink, too, actually. The Green Gold is what I have been starting most of my trees with, adding dots of yellow and blue and even the purple. I watched a video recently suggesting letting colors blend on the page more often than mixing in a palette, and it does give satisfying results. The reddish brown of the tree and chimney are Daniel Smith’s Transparent Red Oxide, which I am enjoying very much, but is quite similar to other colors I already had. (Including the Transparent Pyrrole Orange which comes in the High Chroma set, I think.) The yellow is Daniel Smith Naples Yellow… which I haven’t quite decided about. I think I like it? The Qor and the Daniel Smith Naples Yellow are slightly different colors and I haven’t compared them much yet.
Day 235 (Wed Aug 23) tomorrow’s treehouse…
Begun while waiting at an airport, inked at home, and will be finished tomorrow!
Day 234 (Tues Aug 22) little yellow treehouse (correction: big yellow treehouse)
I’ll do a little one tomorrow. Don’t look too long at the staircase, you’ll get a headache. It is a sad optical illusion. Just pretend it works. Squint, and it does. This one was so difficult because stupidly I did it upside down!!! So, the other page was in my way the whole time. I didn’t even realize until I’d half inked it in.
No hiding kitty this time. A playhouse and tricycle, but they are hard to see.
ThreeSixFiveArt 