2016 Watercolor Calendar - July

Time for another installment on our watercolor technique calendar.  Today's technique was inspired by of all things - my phone screen!  My Samsung S5 has this lovely bright geometric pattern that reminded me of watercolors.  Now I'm not gonna kid you - this is a very involved and time consuming technique.  I figure it's gonna be great for those folks that are pent up in the house due to all of the snow everywhere (but here that is).  I didn't make any other examples other than the calendar page due to the time issue but please give it a try - the results are beautiful.

Here is the finished calendar page....

And here's how I made it....

I started off by drawing lots and lots of lines.  Now I didn't get some of my lines right the first time and ended up erasing a few several times before I was happy with it.  

Here is how my line work turned out...time for color!

I pulled out a rainbow of watercolor pencils that I wanted to use...

and started laying down various colors for each shape.  Some shapes I used one color, others I used 2.  If you don't have watercolor pencils you can use wc crayons, markers, or plain old paints.  If you are using watercolor paints I suggest you work on different areas at one time.  This will allow one section to dry before you paint something next door.  It will help prevent colors from mixing by accident.

So once I had all my color laid down I used a wet brush and started dragging colors here and there.

And this was my first layer...

don't fret if it's sort of ugly at this stage. 

We have more color to add.

After your initial layer has been painted, go back over each area and darken some or all shapes as desired.  You can play and play and play.    I sure did!  When you're satisfied with the results, it's time to make your calendar.