Watercolor Cactus

One thing I've been seeing on Instagram a lot lately that I think is super cute is cacti. I love them because they are simple green shapes with pops of color. I decided to try my own using a little trick I learned at the watercolor and calligraphy retreat I went to a couple weekends ago. With the class, we received two packs of watercolor pencils (from Close to My Heart). My first though was "oh great, watercolor pencils" (with eye roll). I've never been into colored pencils and I've never really had a desire to try watercolor pencils until the instructor pointed something out-- you can use watercolor pencils to sketch your drawing and it will just blend in when you paint your picture. What?! That's one of the best tricks I've ever heard! So, I sketched out what I wanted to paint and just started filling it in:

I added a simple ground color and shadows so they weren't just floating in space:

And then I did something bad... I thought I had a very fine black felt tip pen, but I don't. So, because of some of the things we learned in the watercolor class, I thought it might be a good idea to try to put the cactus' needles in with my new calligraphy nib. That I'm still trying to learn how to use. Nope! Bad idea.

So, as you can see, some of the needles are a little thick. I'm sure that this would have worked great if I knew what I was doing with a calligraphy nib and could control the ink flow better. I think I'll just make sure I get a fine tip pen before I try this again...

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I Did It!

This post has nothing to do with painting of any kind, but something much more important, to me at least. It is my biggest accomplishment thus far and I wanted to write down my thoughts and feelings, while I still have them. I graduated from college yesterday. I spent the last five years attending Westminster College and yesterday was a day that I wasn't sure would ever come. I majored in Aviation: Flight Operations and spent much of my time at the airport, flying airplanes. I haven't flown in a while but I think I ended up with about 350 hours. I earned my private, instrument, commercial, and multi-engine ratings. Toward the end of my education, I decided that flying probably isn't for me. This change of heart was a result of many things, but most of all because my eyes were opened to all the other opportunities in the aviation industry. There is a place for me out there, somewhere. I just need to find it. I was originally pursuing an art minor, which is why it took me...

Modern Floral Watercolor 5

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Emilee Williams Art

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