Floral Alphabet Watercolors - E & F

The next two watercolor paintings I completed in my floral alphabet watercolor series were for the letters E and F.

As with the other letters already done, I started with ink outlines of each later, taped down to help keep the paper flat while I painted.

I added a light layer of colors next, letting the color bleed into the background sometimes to really draw attention to the watercolor medium.

I darkened some of the non-floral parts of the letters with blue and purple paint, and added paint splatter across each painting with pink and yellow watercolor paint.

Finally, I went through and added more darker and brighter colors in some areas, to give the abstract flowers a sort of "stained glass" effect.

Here are the completed paintings for E and F.

Floral Alphabet Watercolors - C & D

Continuing on with the next two letters in my floral alphabet watercolor series, today's post is all about letters C and D.

I decided to start doing more than just two letters at a time (though each blog post is still only going to cover two letters per post - it ends up being waaaay too many "in progress" pictures otherwise), so I started by taping down letters C - H with masking tape, to help keep the paper flat while I painted.

I also made sure to keep my completed A and B paintings nearby, so I could refer to them for reference of how I wanted the rest of the alphabet to look. You can also see in the photo below where I kept out only the five tubes that I ended up using - opera pink, yellow, light green, ultramarine blue, and purple. I used these same five colors throughout all 26 paintings.

I started with the ink outlines, and then added my first light layer of colors on top of that.

Next, I darkened some of the non-floral areas, and added pink and yellow paint splatter to both paintings.

Finally, I added more layers of darker color on top, trying to reserve some lighter areas to give it a collaged/stained glass sort of look.

Here are the finished paintings, with masking tape removed and signatures added.

Eventually I will scan all of these paintings in and turn them into notecard sets!

Floral Alphabet Watercolors - A & B

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently completed 26 small 5"x7" watercolor paintings, one for each letter of the alphabet. Today's post is going to focus on the first two letters - A and B.

I started with an ink outline of the letters, stylized with "stained glass" floral abstractions. I initially got out 8 tubes of watercolor paint to use, but ultimately only used five colors instead, which I then continued throughout the 26 paintings, so they would all have the same color scheme.

I started with a layer of light color. In some places, I let the watercolor leave the outlines of the letters; in others, I kept the color contained to just inside the lines.

Next, I added some pink and yellow paint splatter to each painting.

For the final step, I darkened everything up a bit. I gave the flowers a sort of collage or stained glass look by darkening some segments and leaving other parts very light. Where there were no flowers, I filled in the rest of the letter with dark blue and dark purple to give the letters more overall definition and help the lighter, more colorful florals really pop.

Here are the final paintings, with masking tape removed. I signed each painting very small, to fit with the overall proportions of the 5"x7" watercolors.

Floral Alphabet Watercolors - Ink Outlines

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."

Organizing Art Closets

In the spirit of celebrating the New Year, I thought I'd share a recent organization project I completed for my finished artwork, invitation samples, frames and mats, and shipping and packing supplies.

Over the summer, my husband and I worked on organizing our second floor. We needed to clear out the "future nursery" bedroom - which we'd been using as an office/random storage room for the last six years - before we could paint it (a task I wrote about in this previous blog post). This entailed organizing our other extra bedroom-cum-office into a space that could house both our desks and computers, which in turn necessitated reorganizing all of my "art stuff" - something I'd truthfully been meaning to do anyway, so that I knew where to easily find finished artworks when something sold on Etsy.

I use a room in our basement as my in-home studio space - but the humidity levels are uncontrollable down there, which makes me worry that any artwork down there will warp a bit with time. I do still store all of my art supplies and artwork-in-progress in my basement studio, but I prefer to at least move my finished pieces up to the second floor, where the art will be safer. So over the course of several weeks last summer, I came up with a way to better organize my finished artwork, my supplies for framing and matting finished artwork, and my supplies for shipping finished artwork, utilizing our main hall closet upstairs as well as part of the closet in our guest bedroom.

Our guest room is occupied right now by my sister-in-law (and many of her things), who is in the process of moving back to Michigan and buying furniture so she can live in her newly purchased house - so I didn't grab a photo of the whole guest room closet, since she's using the closet rod to hang up her clothes. But there are two small sections of the closet that my finished artwork is living in - my larger pieces (many of them framed) in the right corner, leaning against the wall; and my mid-sized framed pieces (the pattern watercolors I grouped and installed into multi-opening frames) stacked in protective boxes horizontally in the left corner, coupled with smaller unframed pieces stacked in a box on a shelf above them (not pictured).

Then in our main hallway closet, we installed some new shelves, leaving an opening in the middle so that the attic hatch can still be accessed when needed. The floor has our suitcases and carry-on bags for travel, but the eight shelves above that hold items I use for my "art business" or graphic design business - including bubble mailers and envelopes, air bubble bags, bubble wrap, and packing paper on the top four shelves, which I use for shipping Etsy purchases domestically and internationally.

The two lower shelves on the left side house extra unused frames and mats for future finished artwork, as well as clear bags and boxes for my art print notecards. The clear bags fit one notecard and envelope; I deliver these individually priced notecards to Paint Creek Center for the Arts to add to their art market inventory. For my sets of 4, 6 or 10 notecards, I use the clear boxes. They're laying flat in the cardboard box, but they easily pop into a box shape and then stay closed with a small clear circle sticker when I'm ready to use them.

On the right side of the closet, the lower two shelves hold a plastic bin of past invitation projects and sample invitations, as well as extra brochures and business cards (with plenty more room to spare, as you can see).

Inside the plastic bin, I sorted past projects into their individual clear zip-sleeves. You can see my own personal wedding stationery in the top large sleeve in this first picture here. Keeping them in these individual sleeves helps me keep all the parts of one design together (invitations, save the dates, thank you cards, menus, ceremony programs, table numbers, place cards, etc.) for easy access when I want to refer to a past project or show samples to a future client.

Beneath all the plastic sleeves are stacks of sample invitations I created in 2011, before I had any "real client" projects to show off instead - invitations and other custom stationery with fake names at fake venues for fake events. They show the potential of what could be done to any future clients who want to utilize pocket envelopes.

The hallway closet obviously still has a lot of room to grow - allowing me to easily find space for more shipping or framing materials as I need to, or perhaps add another plastic bin of invitation projects stacked on top of this first one, once I complete more projects.

It's very convenient to have all of my finished artwork upstairs, as well as my "Invites by Andrea" samples and shipping and packing supplies next to my iMac and printer, where I work on graphic design projects and print notecard sets when someone makes an Etsy purchase. It doesn't always look nice (hello dented cardboard boxes, being reused for the third or fourth time) but it's effective, and that's what matters. :)