I sat down with a lavender iced latte, put on some tunes, and followed a tutorial by the Tiktok account @rebelunicorncrafts. Try out this therapeutic and fun project!
Supplies:
Watercolor paper or bullet journal for mixed media
Watercolor paints
Watercolor brush
Tape for the edges, if you want a clean edge of each box
Practice Makes Perfect… Or at Leasts Gets You Started
Don’t worry about being perfect. Just get started. I get anxiety all the time about creating “great art” because I got a degree in art. Because I worry that I won’t be perfect at it, I don’t end up creating anything at all. For now, just explore how the paint moves and how much pigment you need to mix together to get to the darker layers.
Don’t worry if your materials aren’t high quality either. When you’re sketching and practicing, you don’t need to use the fanciest materials. It relieves some pressure to know that you’re not wasting anything too expensive on practicing skills.
Something like this would be a perfect starter paint set:
Choose Your Colors and Set Up Your Space
I went with the same colors as the tutorial because @rebelunicorncrafts picked out a wide range of vibrant colors. Feel free to change it up though! I did not tape off my edges and regretted it at the end so I would recommend using washi or painters tape to keep everything clean.
The Lightest Layers Go First
In watercolor, you always start with the lightest layers. Fill the whole box with a light wash of the paint and leave some fluffy white shapes in the sky for clouds. That will leave the top of the sky just a little darker and give a strong box shape at the end. I jumped from color to color because while watercolor does require some patience, I only have so much.
Atmospheric Perspective (Also Known As… The Lightest Layers Go First Again)
When you’re looking out into the distance, things start to fade into the atmosphere and out of our range of vision, or perspective. The technical painting term for this is, “Atmospheric Perspective.” Now you have a fine arts technical term to share with your friends when you show them your art!
How that affects the painting is that the lightest layer of mountains gets painted first. Since the front mountain silhouette was going to be flat, I continued this layer all the way down to the bottom of each color block so that there wouldn’t be any extra unwanted lines. This layer has more pigment than the sky but will be the least pigmented mountains.
Embrace the Pigment
For those last two layers, really let the color shine through. They’re the darkest layers and should stand out the most. Embracing the pigment gives contrast to your painting and meaning to the lightest layers.
Finishing Touches
Remove your tape if you chose to use some before the painting is 100% dry but after it’s had the chance to sit a little while. I added a few splatters for a finishing touch to blend the three color blocks together and add a bit of pizazz to the piece but you could add birds, trees, or maybe some calligraphy on top!
If you follow the tutorial, share your art with me!
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