September Challenge

Daily Art Watercolour Challenge Sep 4th - October 4th 2016

 

I've been neglecting the blog this year, but I haven't stopped painting.  Last month, I challenged myself by completing 30 watercolour pieces in 30 days.  Each piece was a 6 x 6 watercolour illustration of a natural object found on my way to the studio.

I strongly recommend a daily art challenge as a way to practice techniques, loosen up and get painting. I was able to try a number of new techniques in this challenge which I would be afraid to trial on a larger project, and I learned to paint much faster and more confidently.

I also learned a lot about the watercolour pigments in my collection.  I found some pigments surprisingly useful throughout the challenge.  DS Amazonite Genuine, a lovely transparent turquoise, was surprisingly useful for delicate veining and shadows on leaves, berries and acorns, and mixed with Titanium Buff, was the perfect colour for lichen.  M. Graham Neutral tint was very useful for rendering soft shadows on light subjects such as mushrooms and feathers.

This challenge also generated a number of images perfect for greeting cards.  I am printing 12 new greeting card designs in 4.25 x 5.5 format, shown below

Greeting Cards