I love making gifts. I love painting. And I love painting gifts. High five. So, I thought I’d share an easy way to do this, that anyone can do, if you feel like making an artsy gift for someone this year. Because one of the greatest things about watercolors is that you can just paint a blob of color and it will look cool. And well, there’s a fun little trick to add to that watercolor blob, that makes it look THAT much cooler. Yes. Even gift worthy, in my opinion.
Easy watercolor art gift dealio.
I promise it’s easy. This was how I first learned to watercolor in Elementary school. And yes, I might have tried to sell some of them door to door in my neighborhood.
Here we go…
Tools: Watercolors, watercolor paper, pencil, rubber cement, sharpies or artists pens.
1: Lightly sketch out a word in block letters, or a silhouette, or anything you want to be white/not have paint on it. I wrote the word “SEA”. Other ideas: Any short word, a heart, a shell, a date, a flower…you get the point.
2: Paint over the shapes you just sketched out with rubber cement, then let it dry completely. This creates a “mask” from the watercolor you are about to go nuts with.
3: Now paint a big blob of watercolor on the paper and over the areas you rubber cement-ed. I love sticking to a color tone range, (Think blues and greens, or reds and yellows.) This is the fun part. Use lots of water and be sure to bleed some colors together.
4: Let the paper dry completely.
5: Fun part, part deux: Remove the rubber cement just by rubbing the area with your finger, and it will all stick together and make a rubber cement booger. NOTE: Be sure to wash you hands and have clean hands before this, or else you will smudge the awesomely clear non painted or sketched on paper below.
6: Now it will look really cool, and you can stop there.
7: I love the layered look, so I took my artist pens and sketched some stuff on top of it all to add some depth.
8: Sign this sucker, wrap it up and give someone a little handmade gift of love. That might’ve even been a bit therapeutic to make.
Yeah Art.
Yeah giving the gift of art.
🙂
Sidenote: If you want to give some art, and don’t feel like painting, there are prints at Goldfishkiss Goods up for grabs. #ShamelessSelfPromotion