Lines and Chevrons

I keep blank watercolor cards and envelopes on hand at all time so that I can easily whip up cards when I need them.  With some major life events happening for a few of my friends (both good and bad, which is when blank cards come in handy for your heartfelt messages), I needed to either head over to the card store or make a large batch quickly. I went for the latter.  For quick and easy, nothing beats watercolors in my opinion.  You just need a bit of water, paper and a brush.  Having worked in a wonderful small art store during college, I can go on indefinitely about art supplies, but I'll save that for a later post.

In this case, I used masking fluid, which is like a glue that covers paper that you don't want the paint to touch, and you pull off when the paint is dry. I'm usually a frenetic sketcher who uses lots of crazy black lines, so it was good to experiment with white spaces to change it up.

After having the stunning cover image from Sarah Midda's South of France Sketchbook in my head for days, I decided to attempt my own loose interpretation with various palettes.

Those who know me won't be surprised that I had to include a rainbow palettes gradating from color to color.

Oddly for me, since the palette above is my nearly neutral with the bright hues I love, I found myself enjoying how the peach masking fluid looked.  I particularly found myself drawn to the burnt umber and colors of the Utah landscape shown below.

I also tried to edit myself with the color choices. This messy chevron card was one of my favorites.  It now has a home with one of my dearest and oldest friends in Georgia.

This polka dots card ended up being much cuter than I thought it would be.  When it comes to watercolor, you could never get the even washes of colors around the white areas without the masking fluid.

I did some batik inspired cards, and a flowery one that I sent to the sweetest 11-year-old friend of mine in North Carolina to thank her for a lovely necklace she made me.

This ended up being a lot of fun, and I achieved the result I intended; loose drawings and lines, different color combinations, some love thrown in to the end users and a bit of hot pink, but in check.