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Category Archives: process
Making Your Own Watercolor Pads
I can’t take credit for this wonderful money-saving idea. Jorge Royan was discussing sketchbooks versus watercolor pads, and a few of us liked pads better than sketchbooks for many reasons. They are more expensive, but Jorge makes his own! He … Continue reading
Process: Watercolors, Mountains and Laguna Beach
I started with an iconic view of my hometown, Laguna Beach, from the cliffs to the north. I really went for saturation this time, trying to move lots of color onto a piece. Not what I saw in my mind’s … Continue reading
Posted in art, painting, process, sketchbook, watercolor, writing
Tagged california hills, Daniel Smith watercolors, Laguna Beach, ocean, palm, Primatek, sunset
3 Comments
Process: Painting With Artist’s Prompts
Today I played with artists from Community Thrive, painting their way. I didn’t like all that I did, but will show you the “failures” too. The thing about classes is two-fold, assuming you are pretty good at making art: I … Continue reading
Posted in acrylic, art, challenge, class, color, creativity, painting, pencil, process, watercolor
Tagged birds, faces, horses
3 Comments
Process: Mixing Chinese White Paints
“As an acrylic artist I almost never used white except under other colors to pop them. But as a water-colorist I have reached for white a few times, and I am using an old Sakura Chinese white right now until … Continue reading
Posted in color, creativity, painting, process, watercolor
Tagged Chinese white, mixing, palette, play, watercolor
3 Comments
Process: Mixing Quinacridone + Caput Mortem Paints
Building from Process: Mixing Hematite Paints, I moved into mixing two colors into each of my paints: Caput Mortem and Quinacridone Gold. The latter has been a favorite of mine for 20 years. Caput Mortem has also been known as … Continue reading
Posted in color, painting, process, watercolor
Tagged caput mortem, cote de azure, mixing paint, palette, quinacridone gold
1 Comment
Process: Mixing Hematite Paints
New color paints are the yummiest, and my new clean watercolors all moist from a spray call to me. After buying mostly Golden Acrylics for 15 years (and they have watercolors coming out which I am dying to try), I … Continue reading
Posted in color, painting, process, watercolor
Tagged Daniel Smith watercolors, experiment, Genuine Hematite, Golden Acrylic Paints, hematite, mixing, Primatek, watercolor
4 Comments
R is for Repurposing: A-to-A Challenge
I stumbled on this and after starting, thought, why not do it as a mini class? A friend sent me a fridge magnet, and while I was popping it onto our fridge, I realized we had a couple of old … Continue reading
Posted in acrylic, art, class, collage, creativity, handmade paper, painting, process
Tagged craft, fish, Golden Acrylic Paints, horse, magnets, Pitt pens, recycle, repurpose, upcycle
8 Comments
Process: Tea, Milk, Honey — Our Garden Buddha
If you are following me, you know I am struggling to learn watercolors after years of entrenched acrylic painting. I am following a few folks, and definitely studying the Urban Sketchers. Yesterday I discovered Marc Taro Holmes blogs and he … Continue reading
Posted in color, drawing, painting, process, watercolor
Tagged buddha, hoi toi, Marc Taro Holmes, painting, process, tea milk honey, watercolor
5 Comments
P is for Pastels: A-to-Z-Challenge
I’ve never liked pastels, and for some reason, when people used to give me art supplies, they always gave me pastels. Because I was a glitzy Southern Californian beach gurl, they gave me shimmery pastels! I find them clumsy, thick, … Continue reading
N is for Nicolaides: A-to-Z Challenge
Continuing on with the technique I learned from Gwenn Seemel, I am still very uncomfortable and yet excited by it. I get lost in it. It allows me to SEE better –through my fingers attached to a pen — or to … Continue reading
Posted in art, drawing, painting, process, sketchbook
Tagged alala, crow, drawing, Natural Way to Draw, Nicolaides, Pitt pens, sketching, Tombow pens
4 Comments
M is for Mistakes: A-to-Z Challenge
It’s a cautionary tale. I tend to jump right in and not think about chemistry (which I was pretty good at) when it comes to paints and shellac and all kinds of wet colorful things. When I was first painting … Continue reading
Posted in acrylic, color, creativity, painting, process
Tagged Golden Acrylic Paints, mermaids, mistake, mixology, retreat, shimmer
8 Comments
F is for Favorite Artists: A-to-Z Challenge
A friend (and favorite artist) published a blog post the other day relating how her style evolved. It has a lot to do with artists who influenced her. I know several of my favorite artists influenced my tendency to one … Continue reading
Posted in art, creativity, painting, process, series
Tagged David Hockney, Marc Chagall, Marc Rothko, Monet, repetition, repetitve
6 Comments
D is for Drawing Pens: A-to-Z Challenge
My favorite drawing pens are Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens, shown right as the top three pens with their caps off. I love them because they are wonderfully waterproofed India ink, and work best of all the pens on shellacked … Continue reading
Posted in art, creativity, drawing, journal, painting, process, shellac, sketchbook, watercolor
Tagged Cocoiro pens, drawing pens, painting with pens, Pitt pens, Tombow pens
19 Comments
B is for Brush Pens! A-to-A Challenge
I am just learning to use brush pens, as I move to smaller formats and water colors to work my artistic ways. Brush pens are these super devices where the water is carried in tube which attaches to the watercolor … Continue reading
Posted in art, creativity, journal, painting, process, sketchbook, watercolor
Tagged brush pens, Neocolor II, watercolor pencils
5 Comments
Basilica of the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo: Sketch to Finished Piece
Carmel Mission (long name is Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, link to Wiki article) is one of my favorite missions. I am taking you through my sketching process from rough pencil sketches (which I wish I had not lost) to … Continue reading
Posted in art, creativity, drawing, painting, process, shellac
6 Comments
Emotional Art: Images as a Dream
A moonth stretches out in front of me, 1994. My former husband is in South America, screwing a woman he met there on the pretense of traveling with a male friend, my friend too. (No longer my friend too.) The … Continue reading
Posted in acrylic, art, journal, painting, process, series, writing
Tagged catholicism, childhood hurts, deadbeat dad, dreams, fear, mother, shadow
3 Comments
PROCESS: From Acrylic to Oil Paints
I paint with oils in our business but in my own artwork have used acrylics or gouache. Painting in our business is very different; I am working precisely toward an image that is not mine, shown right, in a restorative or reproduction … Continue reading
PROCESS: Patrick in my Art, or Detox Series 1995
In 1995 I was painting a hundred hearts, and in the middle of that series, my brother Patrick called from Seattle with hiccups that would not end, terrified, and said he was on his way to my house, hundreds of … Continue reading
D.Katie Powell Art 