Peerless Watercolors

I first heard about Peerless Watercolors in an online class I am taking taught by Artomologist Jane Davenport. They are these really nifty little sheets of paper of highly concentrated pure, intense color. The description from the Peerless page includes words like intense strength, absolute solubility, clean color, and convenient. The color adheres to one side of a specially designed paper fabric. The color is activated when water - or any other soluble mixture - is applied. 

What you get with Peerless is plenty of bright, vivid, beautiful colors. Which if you know me, or follow this blog, you already know I am all about the color! I took my Peerless swatches of color and made a color chart page spread in my color journal. I used a Tim Holtz Ranger waterbrush and just touched the wet tip of the brush to a Peerless sheet, then brushed it onto the page. Seriously, it is that simple!

For this particular project I worked in my Strathmore 8" x 5.5" watercolor journal. I just started picking up various colors and touched the wet brush to them, dragging color across the page. 

I kept adding color - building my page. I used the colors I thought I would be coloring with the most. I'm not much of a brown, grey, or tan person so I pretty much stayed away from those colors. I just kept adding and building layers of color. Stacking them here and there.

I worked on this page at Cindy's home just outside of Toronto last month. One of the many things Cindy and her girls introduced me to was hot tea and milk. Yummy! In fact, I had to buy some tea bags as soon as I got back stateside!

Of course, it is a little bit harder to use your Peerless watercolor swatches when Mr. Socks is laying on top of the swatches and your book. Those little papers under Mr. Socks' front paw? Those are the swatches. If you look closely at the one on top of the stack to the left of the photo, you will see a small dot at the bottom corner and another at the top corner of the swatch. That is where I touched my waterbrush to the swatch to pick up the color. These little sheets are going to last me a long time!

I just kept working till my page was filled with awesome, gorgeous, wild color! Above is a close-up.

Here is the whole page. I really just started playing with ideas and this is what I did to get that speckled look across the top. See those random white splotches?

I have no idea in the world why it worked this way. I placed a swatch of dark color next to the right-hand side of the journal. Then, using my waterbrush I flicked water at the swatch - angled from right to left. Think spattering. As I flicked at an angle, the water spray hit the swatch and bounced across the surface of the journal making these lighter spots where it lifted color from the page. Pretty cool!

I was satisfied at this point, so I pulled out my Sharpie fine point pen and started adding tangles. I love working on a larger scale piece and adding tangles to match the size of the color blocks. Tangle with the flow of the color, so to speak.

I wanted to keep this experiment simple, so I stayed with four tangles: printemps, diva dance rock n' roll, tipple, and a variation of crescent moon. 

I just let each section run into the next, using those four tangles only. 

Keep in mind that open space - also called white space - is good. You do not have to fill in every bit of space. Unless you want to.

So much fun to do. You can see the variation in colors of the Peerless watercolors and see how they blend and flow into each other. There is a section in the picture above that I just love. In the lower left corner you see a pink rose shape - that's the diva dance rock n' roll tangle. Just above it you see a section of little black crescents with lines arcing in towards the middle (crescent moon.) It's in shades of teal and pink. That's it. I love the way those colors work together!

Such beautiful color and you can hardly even tell I used my Peerless swatches!

And even though this page may look difficult, it was super easy to draw. Thanks to the power punch of Peerless watercolors, a Ranger waterbrush, and some simple tangles! My perspective on Peerless? Worth every cent and then some! You just can not go wrong!

More Scraps

Here is another one of those scraps. That Diva Dance at the top left corner flowed from another piece that I submitted to a book. It carried over into this corner, and I added all the rest afterwards. As you're reading this, I will be heading to the ocean and a swimming pool. And seafood restaurants, and quaint little shops. I can not wait!  I'll be taking my Peerless Watercolors (I need to do a product review on them), a couple sketchbooks, and some pens. And a swimsuit! Have a great week!

Pink is Where It's At

I had a good week in Maryland. Kali and I went to see the movie Divergent on her night off. I recently read the trilogy and the movie was excellent! Stayed very true to the book. Can not wait for the next installment - in one year. Also, I've been working on book submissions. Kind of hard to do when all my cool supplies are at home, but I'm giving it a shot. And of course I have been readying all 53 of my little twinchies to go out in the mail. Just have to get to the post office and buy a bunch of postage. These were so much fun to make and I just used scraps of color that came from previous projects. (And apparently I make a lot of pink projects.) I hope to show you a few more tomorrow.

Confused About Twinchies?

There are still several sets of twinchies I want to share with you. Fifty-four of us are swapping these little two-inch pieces of art and - as you can well imagine - it is hard to make a little two inch piece of paper become spectacular. You don't have a whole lot of room to work with in two inches. (There are a whole world of people who make inchies - I couldn't even imagine. Haha! Good for them, I say!)

So. Where did I start? 
Where do I many times start? 
I can hear Nancy Wigley chiming in here - I start with Dylusions Ink Sprays.   Yes, I do know there is other product on the market but why go there when I get these bright, luscious, beautiful colors with Dylusions? Seriously. 
When I am working on projects I save any scraps of paper in a ziploc bag and add to it as I go. There is always a scrap bag on my work table. (It's usually buried, but it's there.) Twinchies are a great way to use up some of that scrap. Some of the pieces I used already had color on them. (I don't waste scraps with pretty color on them. I horde, uh, save them.) For the ones that didn't - I spritzed water onto the pieces, followed by spritzes of a couple different colors of dylusions. Then you just let it all sit for about 10-15 seconds and watch those colors blend. A paper towel blotted to the paper surface will stop that mixing/blending action. Remember - if your color is too dark when it is dry or almost dry - you can lighten it up with another spritz of water. Dylusions are not color fast. They will start reacting again when you add 'wet' product - be that water or another color. 
You will notice some of the tiles above have designs on them. Take your dry colored tile, lay a stencil over the top, hold it in place, and spritz water over the top of the stencil. Let it sit for 5-10 seconds, then carefully lift the stencil and watch the color lifting start to work. After about 15 more seconds, blot the tile with a paper towel - and continue to watch that color lift leaving behind the design of whatever stencil you used. Remember - dylusions inks are not water fast, they react with wet product. So take advantage of that and make it work to your benefit.

Since I am a tangler - I went back and added various tangle patterns to the tiles. Some are more elaborate than others. This wasn't one of them :). I loved the little fish and how well he turned out. (He came from a stencil.) I went simpler and just added tangle bubbles to his water, leaving the fish to be the focus of this twinchie. There are so many things you can do! So - save your scraps (or hack up a big sheet and have fun!) and get to making some twinchie awesomeness! Cause it's fun!

Therapy Has Begun

I started physical therapy today for my achilles tendonitis. 

Whoa! Stretching, pushing, pulling, straining.

And that was just the assessment.

If you were wondering about the two larger hearts -

they are from a paper punch I have.

Punches both hearts at the same time

and I just put my chop in the centers. 

Tangled a bit, made up those balloons,

threw on a little washi tape and called it done.

Fast Approaching

It will be here before you know it.  Valentine's Day. A time to tell those you love - that you love and appreciate them. A time for words, a time for cards, a time for chocolate :), a time to make a difference in someone's life.
A group of us artist types are trading ATCs to show our appreciation for each other and appreciation for the art. It is amazing what you can do with a little ink, some glitter markers, a micron, and a 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" piece of watercolor paper.
Are you getting ready to tell the ones you love that you love them? Cause you should be. And the time is fast approaching.

Never QUIT!

If we are honest with ourselves, I expect a great many of us struggle with self doubt. Struggle with the question, am I any good, do I really have any talent at all?  I know as I am constantly trying new art techniques, new methods, new product, I frequently wonder if I have any talent at all, or am I just playing at making art. I have recently figured out (but often forget) that it doesn't matter if I really have any talent, any artful inclinations, as long as I am creating something - I am happy. And that's what really counts. 
Today I was reading through emails, and I came across my daily post from Cloth, Paper, Scissors. I have to tell you that most of the time I just look at the pictures and only read the article if there is a photo that interests me. Today I started reading a story about a lady who wrote in asking, "how do you know if your art sucks so bad you should just give up?" Then the editor/story writer pulled out some comments from various readers, and one really stood out in my mind. I guess because it's the way I would respond. I don't tend to be all wordy, and proficient at big words (this is one of the longest posts I've ever written), and heartfelt sentiments. So I loved that the reader simply said, "Never QUIT! Avenge the naysayers!" And I totally agree! Let's go do some avenging.

ATC Swap

It has been really hard lately to find time to tangle. There is so much stress in my life right now trying to make arrangements for Kali to move out of state for school. She leaves in about 5 weeks and we still don't have anywhere located for her to live. My mom has been in and out of the hospital four times in the past 2 months, and is in a rehab house now. It has been one really hectic time. I finally decided to stop everything else I was doing to just draw. I mentioned the CZTs were doing an ATC swap. I've stayed away from posting my tiles anywhere online, so they could be a surprise when they arrived at their destinations. I did go ahead and post this one, though. It has two of my own patterns in it - netz in the background, and 8ball across the bottom. This ATC swap is a lot of fun! I plan on posting all 24 of my cards at one time - after they've been received :). And - I only have 16 more to draw >.<

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day. It is! Valentine's Day is celebrated as a day for showing love and appreciation. I started the day off with cards and chocolate for my husband and tonight we are going to eat at our local Italian restaurant - my favorite place :). Yay for Al at Mama Mia's! 
Before I get too involved in my day, though, I wanted to say thank you! to you who read my blog faithfully. Thank you to those who have been praying for me to get well recently. I am much improved, but still have a ways to go. Thank you to those who faithfully follow my facebook page The Creator's Leaf. Thank you to Cindy Garner of Cottage Remnant for making my blog and my Etsy Store, TheCreatorsLeaf, look so incredible! You are one awesome friend! Thanks to Jennifer McLean for hosting the Artist's Play Room each week. (This valentine is my entry this week.) Thank you to each of you. Without you as readers, my blog would be pointless. So, a great big thanks! May God bless you today and all year long. And from me to you - Happy Valentine's Day!

A Little More Diva Dance!

So. There's a new tangle in town. Her name is Diva Dance! She's happy, alive, free-spirited, and a whole bunch of fun! There are basically three ways to draw the Diva Dance - the waltz, the foxtrot, the rock and roll - and all three are in the tile above. She is my newest 'favorite' - in case you couldn't tell! I have a feeling I'm going to be doing a lot of dancing in the days to come :).