I went to Michael’s a few days ago to pick up some Christmas picks to spruce up a so-so garland on the stairs. (I was going for simple and tasteful, but pro tip: what’s left of the 70% off Christmas decorations, a week or so before the holiday, is probably not going to be simple and tasteful.) While I was there, I picked up a pad of watercolor paper and a $5 palette of paint.
I used to paint and draw throughout high school, and I liked doing architectural renderings in college. And of course I had my whole stationery business, which was a combination of my illustrations and graphic design. I haven’t done much drawing or painting lately though, aside from the tote bag illustrations and layout that I did for West Elm a couple of months ago. I miss making art for its own sake! I figured that having some paint and paper on hand was a good start, at least.
Then Patricia Zapata posted this inspiring video yesterday, on Facebook.
• Fawn and Flora ~ work in progress from Oana Befort on Vimeo.
I watched it, and then I started sketching. I’m not concerning myself with original compositions at this point; I’m drawing flowers and floral arrangements that I’ve pinned. I’m not making anything to sell, or creating free desktop wallpaper downloads. I’m doing this because I miss it, and drawing, coloring, and painting (whether with crayons, pencils, markers, or paint) is fun.
Even when I fancied myself an artist as a teenager, I didn’t work with watercolors much. Thankfully, Oana Befort, the artist from the video above, wrote last year about her favorite art supplies.
I’m going to play around with my cheapie watercolor set as a beginner/hobbyist, but that Schmincke set looks intriguing, doesn’t it? I found myself rewatching and pausing the beginning of that video to see what brand she was using, and it looks like that’s the one.
Little tubes of watercolor always catch my eye too. The colors are so beautiful.
• Eva Juliet’s Watercolor Palette
* Update * Here’s my first attempt. Not a bad way to spend a little time this morning! The one on the left was first, and it got a bit muddied up. The one on the right, I like better. And once I got started, I kept on going.
