Rainbow Alphabet Watercolors In Progress: I-P

My last post showed off the step-by-step process for painting my "A" through "H" rainbow alphabet watercolors; today it's all about the next 8 letters: "I" through "P"!

The process for making these paintings is basically identical to what I did for "A" through "H" (though I did learn with those first 8 letters that it's better to wait until all of the backgrounds are dry before doing the "paint splatter" step). The first step however, is always the same: taping down the watercolor paper to keep the paintings flat while I paint.

I used a wet-on-wet technique and six tubes of watercolor paint to create the rainbow backgrounds: red, yellow, light green, dark green, blue, and violet. I tried to keep the colors as bright and saturated as possible, knowing that they would fade a little as they dried. The variations in color that you see from one painting to the next is due to the amount of water used in the initial water-only layer, before adding pigment down. (When the water is clear, it can be hard to tell how much water you have on your paper!)

As with before, you can see how the color fades as it dries by looking at the first few paintings I completed. By the time I finished the "J" the "I" that I painted first had already started fading a little - and by the time I got to "K" and "L" the "I" and "J" were looking a lot lighter!

Here are all eight paintings with the rainbow backgrounds complete:

Once the backgrounds started to dry, I went in to add some paint splatter - both as smaller flicks of paint and bigger, darker drops.

You can see how I focused more on the first 6 letters during my first round of paint splatter, since the "O" and "P," whose backgrounds I'd painted last, weren't quite dry enough yet. The second picture below shows what the paintings looked like after I left them for a couple hours, and then returned to add more paint splatter, especially to the "O" and "P."

As with the first 8 letters, I finished off these paintings with some thin orange and green Sharpie lines, to help straighten up some of the wavier letter edges, and add some more visual rhythm and interest to the paintings.

Here are the finished watercolor paintings:

Check back soon for the last 10 letters - "Q" through "Z"!

Rainbow Alphabet Watercolors In Progress: A-H

As I mentioned in my last post, this next set of alphabet watercolors was conceived as a rainbow background with white negative-space capital slab serif letters, one on each 5"x7" piece of watercolor paper. Today's post is going to be all about the process of painting the first 8 letters - A through H.

First, I taped down the pieces of paper in a 4x2 grid so that I could paint them quickly and work on multiple paintings at the same time. Each piece has a capital letter lightly traced on it in pencil.

Next, I went through the paintings one and a time and did the backgrounds. I started by putting uncolored water down on the paper all around the letter, being careful not to let the water get into the letter. Once I put pigment down, the color will flow into wherever water is, but not cross onto any parts of the paper that I left dry. This is known as a wet-on-wet technique, since you're putting wet, watery pigments on top of an initial layer of water.

I made sure my palette had red, yellow, light green, dark green, blue, and violet ready to go, with fresh pigment for a deep, saturated color. It's hard to get a good orange straight from the tube, so I counted on my red and yellow pigments to make an orange for me on the paper, as they blended together.

I started at the top with a bold stroke or two of highly saturated red. Then I went down a little ways and added highly saturated yellow, bringing some of the yellow up to meet the red, mixing it into the red with my brush to make orange. I then added some light green and dark green below the yellow, letting that seep into the yellow a bit. At the bottom, I added dark blue and violet.

In the images below you can see the process of how the paint color fades a little once it dries. I painted the "A" first, and then moved onto the "B." In the 10-15 minutes that I spent working on the background for the "B," the background on the "A" had already started to dry. By the time I got to "C" and "D," "A" & "B" were a lot lighter. Because I knew the colors would fade a little as they dried, I made sure to go as bright and saturated as possible from the get-go.

I also wanted to add some paint splatter for visual interest, and started to do some preliminary paint splatter for the first 4 paintings at this point. Because "C" and "D" were not quite dry yet, some of the splatter started just seeping into the background, though. So I paused on adding more paint splatter until the backgrounds were a little drier first.

Below you can see the first 8 paintings with their backgrounds and preliminary paint splatter complete. I stopped here for the night, to let this layer full dry before continuing.

The next day, once the first layer was dry, I returned to the paintings to add some larger dots of paint splatter. Because the background was now fully dry, these paint splatters did not blend into the background, but stayed on top. This is called a wet-on-dry technique, when you add wet paint on top of dry paint/paper.

In the second close-up image, you can see how the paint splatter dots are still shiny, because they're wet. The rest of the painting is now matte, because it's already dry.

The image below shows the materials I used for these paintings - six tubes of watercolor paint, plus two Sharpie markers. Once all of the paint was dry, I went and added a few little details with orange and green Sharpie. I outlined lines that weren't quite crisp (due to my fast background painting the day before), sharpening or making somewhat wavy lines a little straighter. I also repeated some thin lines so that there would be two or three lines next to each other - for visual rhythm and detail, and to further add to the handmade look of the design.

Finally, here are the finished paintings with all three layers - the rainbow background, the red, green, blue, and yellow paint splatter, and the orange and green thin line details drawn in Sharpie.

Once everything was dry and finished, I untaped the paintings.

Check back soon for the next set of 8 letters: I through P!

Planning for Rainbow Alphabet Watercolors

I enjoyed making my floral alphabet watercolor series so much that I decided to make another set of 5"x7" alphabet watercolors - this time with a painted background (instead of painted letters), leaving the letters as blank negative space like I often do for my custom name paintings (like this recent one for Henry).

I wanted to do a rainbow background, starting with red on the top, bleeding into yellow (it's hard to get a good orange color straight from a tube, so I planned to let the red and yellow mix on the page to achieve a blended orange in between them), then light green, dark green, blue, and violet on the bottom.

To prepare for these 26 small paintings, I first grabbed 13 pieces of 9"x12" watercolor paper, and measured each into two 5"x7" rectangles, with a small margin around them (to help tape the paper down on the table while I painted). I cut out these rectangles and saved the little bit of extra paper for future use (scraps can come in handy when you're trying out a new watercolor tube and want to see what color it looks like).

Next, I selected what font I wanted to use for my letters. I wanted something with a serif, so that simple letters like the capital "I" wouldn't just be a line, but have at least a bit of visual interest. On the other hand, I also didn't want anything too thin, with really delicate serifs, because I knew I'd be painting these fast. I would put a lot of water down around the letters to get the wet-on-wet effect I was hoping for, and then use six highly saturated pigments (red, yellow, light green, dark green, blue, and violet) directly on that water before the water started to dry too much.

I ultimately chose to use Charter Bold for my font. Looking at the widest letter (usually a capital "M" or "W"), I decided what size to print the letters at so that there would still be enough space around the wide letters for it to comfortably fit on a 5"x7" size piece of paper - which in this case was size 280. Then I printed out all 26 capital letters, each centered in a 5"x7" square.

I traced these letters onto my watercolor paper by holding both pieces of paper up to the window on a sunny day, and lightly using pencil on my watercolor paper to outline the letters. Then, I taped down the first several paintings-to-be to get started on the fun part! Below you can see the first two letters, lightly traced and taped down, ready to be painted.

My next blog post will show the in-progress painting for the first 8 letters - A through H! Check back soon.

"Strength" Colored Pencil Drawing

Another recent 8"x10" colored pencil drawing I completed is this one, titled "Strength" after the symbolism of the subject matter: ginger flowers! I used Prismacolor pencils on toned tan Strathmore paper.

I started with a light sketch to lay out where the colors would go - the main red flower with yellow details and green leaves on the right, and a yellow and red flower stalk on the left, with larger leaves/blades of grass in the background.

Then I worked on the flower on the right, adding depth and dimension with several different colored pencils.

Once the flower on the right was finished, I moved on to the yellow and red stalks on the left side of the drawing.

Here are some close-ups of the finished drawing:

I also took some photographs of the completed drawing with a white mat, and listed it for sale on Etsy (which you can find here).

"Constancy" Colored Pencil Drawing

I recently completed this 8"x10" colored pencil drawing on toned tan Strathmore paper, using Prismacolor pencils. The flowers are bluebells, which symbolize constancy.

I started with a light outline of where I wanted to put the purple flower stalks and green grass blades.

Then I went through a gradually built up color and dimension. For the purple flowers I used several shades of purple, blue, and white.

I added the dimension and brighter green colors to the grass blades last, to add a pop of contrasting color into the background.

Here are some close ups of the final, completed drawing:

Finally, I put the drawing in a white mat and listed it on Etsy. Find the drawing for sale here.