Watercolor Collages

I found this watercolor collage I did in high school and I thought it would be really fun to try it again:

I thought I used rice paper to create the collage, so I ordered some on Amazon and waited patiently for it to get here. I realized very quickly when I opened the package that rice paper is NOT what I used to create this collage. The paper I originally used had a lot of fiber and texture. The rice paper is very smooth and thin. So I did some research online and discovered that there is a fibrous paper called mulberry paper that is used in Japanese painting. I think that will work much better for this project and it is on its way!

In the mean time, I figured I might as well try using the rice paper for a watercolor collage. I painted two sheets. On the first sheet, I started with a layer of just water because I wanted to see if the colors would blend. Turns out that was a bad idea. The paper got fragile very quickly and the top layer started peeling off in little balls. I painted it anyway. On the second sheet, I just painted the color on without getting it wet first. That seemed to work much better.

When they were dry, I crumpled them up to give the paper some texture. I will apply them to the watercolor paper with a mixture of water and white Elmer's glue.

I'm picturing something more abstract. We'll see how it goes!

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Finally Finished Poppies

The poppies are finally finished. I am pretty happy with the way they turned out but as usual there are a few things that I wish I could have done better. I may tweak it here and there in a while, when I can look at it with fresh eyes. It's hard to tell what it needs when I have been staring at it for a long time. Two things I learned while painting the poppies: 1: Orange is easy to work with. It lifts quite well. 2: I need to work on my shadows. Hopefully I'll get some more practice with another poppy painting. Here is the finished painting:

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County Fair Entries

The Salt Lake County Fair is next week and I entered two paintings in the fine arts competition. I entered: the lilies and... the poppies. I put them in a white frame and I quite like it. No surprise there! One of the requirements to enter is that the painting was completed in the last three years. These are the only two watercolor paintings I have finished the the past three years. Wow. That makes me sad! I need to get my butt in gear! Entering a painting in a competition and sharing my work has always been nerve-wracking for me. But I'm making myself do it because I figure what good is a painting if it is just going to sit in a portfolio in my room? It would be a waste of time and effort to pour so much hard work into a painting and never share it with anyone, especially when I love watercolor so much. And that's a big part of the reason I started my blog, too. The Utah State Fair is next month and I would like to enter a painting but I am more hesitant about that com...

Emilee Williams Art

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