Hi friends! Sometimes when paint the final outcome is not what we expected. That was the case with today’s painting:
I had intended to do something completely different as you will see in today’s video.
Sponsored by Smart Art Box, subscribe today or check out past kits. All of the supplies except for the white paint and a couple of brushes came in the September kit. I love how you can use supplies from past kits to make each box more versatile!
Supplies:
8″x10″ birch cradled panel
Acrylic paint in red, yellow, blue and white
Brushes: #12 fat, #6 round, spotter & #10 round hog brush
Here is a reference photo of chinese lanterns. I really love the fall colors of this painting and I placed it on my mantle with some gourds for decoration. Be sure to visit out sponsor Smart Art if you would like a surprise box of art supplies sent to you each month. It is a lot of fun even if it doesn’t turn out the way you expect. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! If you like the look of watercolors but only have acrylic paint I have a solution for you!
You can thin down acrylics to watercolor consistency if you are working on paper. You never want to thin acrylic down more than 30% on canvas or wood but if you are using paper you can do it and it works really well. I even tried this with cheaper craft paint and it worked great too. The only acrylics that do not work well for this are heavy body acrylics because they don’t like to flow. You can totally do this project with watercolors (it will be easier in watercolors to be honest) but if all you have is acrylics it is a great solution! Watch the video to see how!
Video!
You can use any soft body or craft acrylic for this and I recommend the brighter colors as they tend to be more transparent. You can also just do this in watercolor if you have it:) I am using Aqyla paint, a viewer requested a review of this paint and the company sent me a set. I will post the review to my blog in a day or two. This was one of the ways you can use the paint. You can save 10% with coupon code: thefrugalcrafter
Here is the reference photo I used by Jan Russ at Paint my Photo.
One more thing!
You still have a few hours to take advantage of the big sale at Craftsy, ALL classes are under $20 and any class you purchase through my affiliate links helps support my free daily tutorials on my blog and YouTube, thanks:)
I love taking Craftsy classes, you get lifetime access and you can watch them anytime! I like to watch them while I am walking on the treadmill and then put the skills I learn to practise the next time I am at my craft table. Here are a few classes I am working through and I think you might enjoy!
Anna Mason is a top notch instructor, if you like painting botanicals you should give her classes on flowers and fruit a look!
Or if you need to loosen up or you are a true watercolor beginner try Kristy Rice’s fun class!
And thinking ahead to items to make for Christmas I am taking this Quilt as You Go class which it perfect for certain crafters who lose steam shortly after finishing their quilt blocks and never actually quilt their quilt (totally guilty!)
Hi friends! I’ll be back with a free live watercolor painting lesson at 12:30pm Eastern Time today on YouTube! We will paint a teacup with grapes from this amazing photo by Lillian Bell at Paint my Photo!
Here is a pattern you can print and transfer to your watercolor paper if you like:
We are only using 4 colours in this painting, feel free to substitute with the closest you have: New Gamboge (warm yellow), Napthol Red (neutral red), Burnt Sienna (warm brown) and Ultramarine Blue (warm blue.) In the swatch below you can see some of the mixes we can achieve from these colors.
You can catch the live show or the replay in the player below but if you want to chat and ask questions be sure to watch on YouTube.
SALE! All classes under $20 this weekend at Craftsy! Pick up a great class while helping support the free tutorials on my blog and YouTube channel! It is a great chance to get a jump-start on holiday crafting too, check out their painting, drawing, quilting, papercrafts and sewing classes. Speaking of holidays you can even give a class as a gift! There is so much to offer and it’s all on sale through Sunday!
Remember any Craftsy class you buy after clicking my link helps financially support my channel and enables me to share free tutorials with you daily. I hope to see you at 12:30pm Eastern Time today for this fun and free live painting class! Til then happy crafting!
Hi friends! Today I have a project that can be done in acrylics, oils or gouache.
I think I might want to do this one in watercolor too, well the pot anyway, maybe with a cup of tea and a pastry! Let me know what you think about that in the comments but for now here is the video tutorial!
Video!
This was the first time I tried Aqyla paint. I have a viewer request a review of it and I will have one for you this weekend. I needed to try a few techniques and experiments with it before I gave my final opinion. The set of 18 colors they sent me sells for $46 and every tube contains the pigment number. It acts like an acrylic but is easier to blend. Technically it is an alkyd resin. You can find out more about Aqyla here. They also gave me a coupon code for my viewers to save 10%: thefrugalcrafter This is not a sponsored post but they did send me the paint for free for review purposes.
I am working on an 11″x14 canvas, my sketch was done in a watercolor pencil:) I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and you give it a try yourself! BTW there will be a live show tomorrow at 12:30pm ET, hope to see you there! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! I have two videos for you today! A review of inexpensive (and much requested) Van Gogh watercolors and a demo of me using them.
First the review. I have had a lot of requests for this paint so when I saw a good buy on it I bought a few tubes. You can see how they fared in this review.
Video!
I found them to be very comparable to the Winsor & Newton Cotman paints which I reviewed here. The price is about the same as cotmans and the tubes are a bit larger. I paid $2.50 for each 10ml tube but the list price is $4.80 vs $4.49 for a 8ml tube of Cotman. Shop around because you can find both brands for less.
Now let’s see them in action! Watch this video of me painting 3 roses.
Bottom line: These are nice paints and easy on the wallet. They are student quality so you need more paint than you would artist quality so you will use it up faster but you can get clean, bright mixes and the pigments the line uses are tried and true. I would recommend this to anyone starting out in watercolor or someone who wants a less expensive brand to experiment with. The lightfast rating on this paint are pretty good too so if you make a masterpiece it will last:) I hope you found this review helpful! Happy crafting!
Hi friends! Today I am going to answer all of the questions I get about watercolor pencils (and I have gotten a lot over the years!) We will go over bet paper to use, best brushes and also what pencils are the best for each budget and application! I will cover both fine art applications and rubber stamping/crafting applications.
We will be live here and on YouTube at 12:30pm ET but the replay will be available if you can’t make it. If you have a question and want to chat live be sure to watch live on YouTube during the broadcast. I will also respond to questions in the comments section after the broadcast it over.
Resources!
You can find most of the pencils I will talk about (all the “art” brands) at our sponsor Jerry’s Artarama!
I will also mention a couple of craft company brands that are very nice: Spectrum Aqua and Prima and they can be found here.
