At the end of 2018, I decided to create 26 small 5x7" watercolor paintings, one for each letter of the alphabet. I envisioned scanning in the finished paintings, sizing them for notecards, and creating notecard sets with a letter on the front and a blank inside. Growing up, I went through stages where I loved having my first initial on things - my go-to purse for the entirety of sophomore year (or maybe it was junior year) of high school was a small black purse with a large lowercase "a" on it in pink.
These letters are stylized with abstract "stained glass" flowers, some of which burst out of the letter's outlines, and some of which stay within the lines. Before I started the actual watercolor paintings, though, I first had to draw all of the letters and outline them onto watercolor paper. Where usually I would draw on watercolor paper in pencil, paint them, and then erase any stray/visible pencil lines at the end, I knew I wanted to have hard, dark, high-contrast outlines here, so I went right for using ink pens directly on the paper. The ink is dark enough that when they are painted, the ink will still be the darkest part of the design; if any of the lines required re-darkening at the end, I planned to go back through and do some outline touch-ups as needed.
Here are the finished 26 ink outlines, ready to be painted.
The next several blog posts will be going through the step-by-step process of painting each one, starting (of course) with the letter "A."
These letters are stylized with abstract "stained glass" flowers, some of which burst out of the letter's outlines, and some of which stay within the lines. Before I started the actual watercolor paintings, though, I first had to draw all of the letters and outline them onto watercolor paper. Where usually I would draw on watercolor paper in pencil, paint them, and then erase any stray/visible pencil lines at the end, I knew I wanted to have hard, dark, high-contrast outlines here, so I went right for using ink pens directly on the paper. The ink is dark enough that when they are painted, the ink will still be the darkest part of the design; if any of the lines required re-darkening at the end, I planned to go back through and do some outline touch-ups as needed.
Here are the finished 26 ink outlines, ready to be painted.
The next several blog posts will be going through the step-by-step process of painting each one, starting (of course) with the letter "A."
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