Blog
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Lilac Drawing With a Watercolor Background
My watercolor painting often follows outside inspiration this time of year. Lilacs are blooming, so it’s time for a lilac drawing tutorial. As much as I love putting pen and paint to paper, I also love being outside watching the world change and being a part of it … running, hiking, and growing things in my garden. Spring is the perfect time to be outside. I love to take my lunch or coffee out and sit on our brick patio, soaking up the first warm rays of sunshine after winter. I close my eyes and listen to the birds celebrating the return of spring. A couple of years ago, I…
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Calligraphy Alphabet
Sometimes … okay, often … I get tired of writing the same way. I love to explore different ways to write the same words, in as many calligraphy and lettering styles as possible, and I have many calligraphy alphabets that I rotate between. Maybe you feel stuck in one calligraphy style and would like to develop a new calligraphy alphabet for yourself. You’re in the right place. I’ll show you how I work through developing a new calligraphy style. You can apply the concept to any kind of lettering, using any tool you have. When developing a new lettering style, it’s helpful to think about one letter rather than all…
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Drawing Tulips
with a Watercolor Color Blend Drawing tulips doesn’t have to be complicated to be beautiful. In fact, minimal design can make the most memorable impact because of its simplicity. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to draw a tulip in a few easy steps, then we’ll add a watercolor bleed color blend similar to the one we used with shadow lettering in the last tutorial. See the last tutorial here: Tulips Lettering. Are you ready to explore tulips? What you need: Watercolor paper Water, paper towel, and masking tape Round paint brush Winsor and Newton Cotman Pocket set (I used Cadmium Yellow Hue, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Viridian Hue and…
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Lettering Tulips
My family and I live in the country, so this time of year when the days are sunny and starting to warm, the outside beckons to me. It’s not enough to work at my desk and look outside. That just makes me feel cooped up. I want to be out there in the growing grass and warm breeze, 40s or lower 50s (I know, but it’s warm to me right now). Still … there is work to be done. During those times, I need a little more spring inside. In the last tutorial, we painted bright spring butterflies (if you missed it, you can find the tutorial here), so this…
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Butterfly Drawing
What an unusual time we face! I hope you all are adjusting to the change of plans this virus has caused. I try to look at the bright side of things. My kids are home; I always like that despite the more frequent interruptions and extra noise. I receive it as a reminder of the gift they are to me. The weather has been inviting. That means, we can go outside to get away from the cooped up feeling that comes with having nowhere to go and not much to do. Luckily, we love hiking and have access to many places where we can disappear into the woods away from…
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Brighten Someone’s Day
We are settling into an uncertain time filled with unknown and concern. As we all wade through our thoughts and feelings surrounding COVID-19, I want to encourage you to reach out in ways that you can to remind people that you care. So today, I want to give you a free card design to help you do that. Just print it (or send it to an online printing company). Trim it. Write a sweet note in it. Send it. No strings attached. No email required. Just free. Send someone a smile today. Then, print a second card to add a little color to your own life.
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Lettering Spring
Spring is in the air! What a great time to work on some spring lettering or lettering some spring. We'll walk through a lettering spring tutorial focusing on letter drawing and letter design with a layered lettering technique. Sometimes lettering looks like calligraphy, sometimes it looks like painting, and sometimes it looks like drawing. Today, we’ll draw the word spring and layer celebrate in script on top of it to celebrate the coming of spring.
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Snowman Drawing
Who wants a snowman drawing for the middle of winter? I know, I know … we all want spring, but it isn’t here (sorry for that bit of reality), so let’s have a little fun while we wait. I have never been big on monotonous tasks. You know, those jobs that you have to do over and over and over again. Like cleaning or practicing letter forms. It’s a fight with boredom, and boredom doesn’t help learning. It helps quitting. Now, I have nothing against practice. In fact, I think practice is key to getting better at anything and that requires a bit of monotony. Or does it? I believe…
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Rose Drawing with a Watercolor Background
This week, we celebrate that special someone in our lives with hearts and chocolate and flowers. Some people love Valentine’s Day, and some people love to hate Valentine’s Day. Personally, I’ll take any day that involves a fun time with my family, good food and makes someone feel special. We celebrate our family on Valentine’s Day. I like things pretty simple and usually say that flowers are nicer outside and growing rather than in a vase wilting (unless they’re free from my garden, of course). I’m probably more of a special heart-felt (but completely true) message kind-of girl. Though a good salted caramel dipped in dark chocolate never hurt anybody!…
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How to Draw a Winterberry Card with Thank You Script
A hand painted winter card with thank you script will make your card memorable. The Christmas season is long gone, but some of you are still writing thank you notes for the gifts you received or to the people who impact your life. Holidays help us remember to stop and think, to take time to say how we appreciate other people ... family, friends, co-workers, clients. It’s the middle of winter here. Hardened snow crusts over the ground. Trees stand tall and bare. Grass waits under the snow in muted colors. Everything is on hold, resting. And yet, it’s in this sleeping time that winterberries show off the most. Their…
