Process

I've had lots and lots of questions about water colors since showing you my art. While I'm not professionally trained, I'll show you here how I do what I do. This is mostly through photos.

 I start with my finished sketch. I first paint areas that will be white or very light with masking fluid. This is essentially masking tape that you paint on. When it's time to remove it, you simply rub it off with your finger or an eraser. Using art erasers (gum and otherwise), I carefully erase one section of my pencil drawing at a time so that it won't show through the paint.

 My next step in this picture was the water. I knew that in order to make the painting believable, the water needed to be right.

 Then I added the girls' shadows. Just lightly here and darker later on. You can see that I continue here to add color and depth to the water.

 Sometimes I get to painting and forget to stop and take photos. Here is a nearly finished Anna.

 And Emilie with just her skin done. She looks like a little sprite with no color in her hair.

 Here's a close-up of the water splash. I left it nearly completely white with just a shadow here and there.

 I paint flat, so when I'm done, I always hang it on my wall to make sure everything looks right. This photo is interesting because you can see my original photo hanging below that I reference while painting. I also put a color photo on my Kindle to watch while painting.

When all is approved, it's time for framing. In this case, I ended up not wanting the top little bit of background included.

 And framed. I hope this is helpful to you aspiring artists.

Love,

xoxo