Painting on a Dime

I subscribed to a new artist on YouTube this week!  Lynne Bauer of Dragonfly Spirit Studio.  She creates simple Watercolor Postcard Paint-Alongs.  I happened to have Strathmore postcards just sitting in my drawer, so I was happy to watch her video and create my own little paintings.  She shares really useful information as she paints along beginning with a dime!  I think you'll be pleasantly pleased to give her video a look, especially for my friends who are new to watercolor!

This was my first of 7 postcard paintings.  The techniques I really love are painting a water ring around the sun and creating sparkly waves reflecting off the sun with a credit card!  I added birds just to fill in the space.  Notice where the horizon line is on this one compared to the others!  Had to go back and refer to the video several times.

I basically worked with the same color pallet using Daniel Smith watercolor.  I just chose color in different orders and mixed them differently as I went along.  I found it interesting that the artist doesn't recommend using black paint for the foreground images, but I'm happy with the results.

I love the bloom around the sun on this one.  The heron was hand drawn on a scrap paper first, scribbled on the reverse side with a graphite pencil covering the entire bird, and then placed onto the postcard.  I traced the bird with a blending stump, 'cuz I couldn't find a dried up pen.

Same bird image and graphite pencil technique.  I love how each postcard is a little different!

Had to veer away from the video and go out on my own with a palm tree.  This bloom is amazing around the sun too!

Tall grasses are so easy to create and fills in the corner nicely.

Had to try different color combinations for the last postcard.  There is no limit to the colors you can use for this project!  I loved creating these little painting so much, I hope to move into making 5x7 cards using the same techniques!

I sure hope I've inspired you to give this a try!  Like Lynne says continually in her video, "it's a postcard!" and meant to be quick and fun.


Have a pleasant week!

XOXO

LYN