Moms (women) need time for themselves on a regular basis. When your creative juices are screaming to be free, try these easy fall watercolor paintings. The miniature works of art are easy to display and store.
In this blog I’ll show you (I say that loosely) how to fulfill your desire to create with these easy fall watercolor paintings. You only need a few supplies and very little experience. Take time for YOU!
FIRST WATERCOLOR PAINTING LESSON
Last summer I spent a week at my daughter’s house. She is a very talented artist and was giving watercolor lessons to a friend, so I sat in. My first lesson was making a miniature landscape. I loved it because it was not overwhelming. The picture was 3 x 3 inches — one little corner of the 9×12 sheet of paper. (The rest of the sheet was for practice.)
I learned about wet on wet, lifting color off, using water to blend the colors, and paintbrush techniques: sky, mountains, trees. Those methods all came into play as I decided to make myself a fall decoration that wouldn’t take up much space.
STRESSED
I have been SO stressed this week. That comes with parenting — and living. Between foster care struggles, babysitting grandkids, bad reactions to medication, and crashing from chronic illness, I was at the end of my rope.
Needless to say, I have not reached my blogging goal this week. STRESS. How could I reach my goal and ease anxiety? I know you’ve been there. It doesn’t matter what stage of parenting or existing you’re at, there’s tension. One solution to relieve this pressure is to do something creative.
I thought I was going to make gnomes, but I needed more supplies. There weren’t any in my small town, so I have to wait for an Amazon order to come in. (Be on the lookout for that blog post.) Instead, I decided to do watercolors. Miniatures. These are fast and easy and fun to stick in various corners of the house.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE RICH OR A PRO
I love watercolor because it is incredibly forgiving. If you haven’t given it a try, you should. I am not a professional. AND THAT’S THE POINT. You do not have to be great at anything to enjoy it. Learning and letting your creative juices flow is the point.
Some of my pictures I don’t like. They’ll go in the garbage. That’s okay. It’s paper. I don’t really like the acorn — I fussed too much. My daughter’s voice echoed in my head “Quit fussing,” but I did it anyway. (Hey, don’t call me out.) I learned what not to do. YAY!
I got my first watercolor set at Dollar Tree for $5. The least expensive brush set at Walmart was about the same price. It didn’t have any numbers on it, so don’t freak if yours don’t. For miniatures, you’ll need mostly small brushes. I used a larger 1/2 inch flat brush for laying my wet area, but most of the painting was done with a variety of different small round brushes and a small flat.
Watercolor paper can be confusing. There’s cold press and hot press and various different weights. Just get 140 lb – 300 GSM from whatever source is easiest — for me it’s Walmart. I think it was $7. The lighter weights might be fine for practicing, but the water makes them wrinkle, and they don’t look great for display. I like cold press. Do I know why? No. I don’t have to know to get started. Neither do you.
The POINT: Just get started doing something for yourself. It won’t cost a lot, if that’s a concern. And give yourself grace as you learn.
FIND INSPIRATION FOR EASY FALL WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS
The very first thing I did was find easy fall watercolor painting inspiration pieces I liked on Pinterest. I did this while I was crashed in bed. If you’re in the same boat, where you’re laid up, use that time to look for things you’ll do when you’re up and about again. It helps us feel hopeful. We need that.
I watched the videos over and over, and then watched them again as I worked. I’ll go over some of the techniques, but feel free to find instruction anywhere you can. I’m here to cheer you on and share inspiration — DO WHAT BRINGS YOU JOY. Maybe my ideas will inspire your ideas. And at the end of this post, I hope you’ll share what you do, to inspire me. I love the circle of love.
PREPARE TO PAINT
Get all your supplies ready. You will need:
- watercolor paint (wet or dry — I like dry best)
- watercolor brushes (1/2 inch flat, tiny #0 round, small #2 round, medium #4 round, small #4 flat)
- watercolor paper (140 lb – 300 gsm)
- painter’s tape (if your tape’s too tacky, it tears your paper)
- water container (I use a large mouth mason jar)
- paper towels
- scissors
- ruler (optional)
- pencil (optional)
GET STARTED
For the fall watercolor miniatures, measure your paper into 3×3 grids and trace lines, unless you simply want to freestyle it. Maybe you only want to do one or two. That’s fine. Tape your paper down to the table. This will help it not wrinkle.
I wrote down on a notepad the 6 to 8 different designs I wanted to do. This helped me to move along while I waited for one design to dry. That’s the hardest part for me — waiting for one layer to dry before moving on to the next. Maybe I have ADD? You do not have to plan out everything like I do. Shoot from the hip if that’s your style.
Decide what colors you want to have as a background — or don’t have a background at all. Here’s what I learned — keep your colors very light. That’s what I don’t like about the acorn painting and the wheat. (I didn’t even show you that one. Ick! Let me now in the comments if you want me to post my ugly.) To make your colors lighter, water down your paint on your prep space (the lid of the container or a painter’s pallet (I got mine at Dollar Tree.) You can lift color off if it’s too dark.
CREATE YOUR FALL WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS
Choose a design and GO! The trick to watercolor is having enough water on your brush. That’s my tip. Second tip, use a practice sheet and play around before painting on your background color. Here are the techniques I learned for my first miniature. Watch the video to see each of these techniques in action.
Wet on Wet
Get your paper wet. Then get your brush wet with your desired color (play with that color on your pallet and test it on an extra sheet). This technique makes the color very fluid and it moves around on the paper well. This is not great for details, but fantastic for all your colors moving together: background, sky, tree leaves.
On the green and purple pumpkin, I used this technique to get the purple to swirl into the green along the edges. So let the pumpkin dry, then with a wet #0 brush make a line along the edge of the pumpkin section. Next, dip the tip of your brush into the paint color you want and simply touch where it’s wet. You don’t have to make a line. The paint will flow along that wet line. It’s cool! You’ll have to play with how much water is too much water. Use your practice sheet.
Lifting Color Off
There’s probably a technical term for it, and I could go look it up or call my daughter to sound professional. But I’m not going to. When I made my pumpkins, the color was too dark. I wanted the center of each section to be lighter, so I took my dry brush (or nearly dry) and lifted the wet color off of where it needed to be lighter. If it’s already dry, get it slightly wet again.
I love this technique so much! Last year, I made splatters on a sunflower painting and got a big dark spot that was awful! Months later, I decided it needed fixing, so I got a q-tip wet (I licked it) and touched it to the spot until I’d lifted almost all the color off. Crisis averted. Play with this. It’s a lifesaver.
Using Water to Blend
When we want your color to go from dark to lighter, we make the brush stroke in the dark color and then rinse the brush some. Use water to dilute the color and pull it where you want it. When I made the mountains — during my first lesson and for my fall watercolor paintings, I painted the outline and then used water to pull that color lighter where I wanted it. This creates the shadows and texture. I did the same thing with the acorn, layering other colors (wet on wet).
Paintbrush Techniques
How you hold and apply the paintbrush to the paper makes a difference. The bigger the brush, the more paint it lays down — the bigger the strokes. The round brushes are different, too. You’ll notice some taper into a fine point, while some have bristles that are all the same length. The taper is what I used for this project.
Flat Brush
To spread a large amount of paint or water to your surface, use a larger flat brush (1/2 inch for miniatures). To make the tree leaves, I used a small #4 flat brush that I “pounced” or dotted around the area. Do you love my technical terms?
Round Brush
For fine lines, use the tip of a round brush: pumpkin vines, leaf veins, the tree trunk. To make the shape of leaves or pumpkins or mountains, use the round brush at an angle. The tip of the round brush works well for pine trees — fine line for the trunk and dotting the tip in a zigzag for the boughs.
WATCH IT!
Video coming soon! I wanted this blog posted immediately and video editing takes a long time!!
CUTTING ART TO SIZE
I used a paper cutter to cut my grid into pieces. It wasn’t exactly pleasing to have all of them with sharp edges. In the past, I’ve ripped the edges of the paper to create a jagged edge, but these were so small, I knew that wasn’t possible. I already had scissors with jagged edges, so I used those to cut half of them for variety. When you’re creating bigger pieces of art, I recommend the ripping method. It’s another great look if you’re not going to frame your art.
DISPLAYING YOUR ARTWORK
My first watercolor resides on a kitchen shelf (I took it down for inspiration) in a cute wire holder. I could also display them on twine — like a banner. Oooo that would be cool, too! I just thought about cutting them in triangles and making a seasonal bunting.
I found a wood board with a rope hanger that I bought at Walmart last year and simply turned it upside down. With a hanger attached to the previous bottom, it’s now a great display for my art. Chalk Couture allows me to switch out the FALL saying for any seasonal message I want.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
DIY Decorative Pumpkins – Pumpkins that serve Halloween and Thanksgiving – a craft I made earlier.
DratherB Pinterest – My Pinterest Pins – where I find inspiration.
How Women Can Combat Time Bias and Create Space for Creativity I loved this article and appreciate its message. We NEED to make time for our creativity.
YOUR TURN
I hope you’ll leave a comment and share your thoughts. Use the following questions for prompts.
Have you tried watercolor painting before? Do you have any tips you’d like to share with us beginners? What is your favorite way to express your creative side? How do you feel after creating something?
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