Delightful Watercolour Swatches

I really love creativity in many of its forms - whether it is creating art, teaching others how to paint, solving problems in a creative way, or creating some home decor to address a practical need (in a beautiful way of course)!

Paint + Paper + Creativity + Sprinkle in Joy = A Delightful Creating Time!

So... what have I been up to lately? Other than gardening, kid stuff, studio cleaning and yard work?

I'm glad you asked. ;)

A friend that I met on Instagram loved the swatches I created (above) and suggested that I use one of my hand carved rubber stamps for swatching. 

Let me tell you - I've deeply enjoyed doing so! These pages of swatches will have a practical value but they also look so beautiful! Not surprisingly, I felt a lot of joy creating these pages. :)

I grabbed a few of my hand carved rubber stamps and this is what I came up with: 

I absolutely ADORE these pages! So of course... I created more and plan to work on enough of these pages that I'll need a handmade journal so that they can have a home. Good thing I can make that too, right? It's an idea for another class at any rate!

If you'd like to do this too - you just need to have paper, a black waterproof ink, a stamp of your choice, a pen/marker, a paint brush, water jar and watercolours to create your swatches.

This is what I used:

My favourite papers - Paint On, 115 lb, SMOOTH (is better for stamping on than textured paper) by Clairefontaine. I found mine in the store at Soul Paper in Saskatoon, Canada. They always have lots in stock in the store (but they usually don't sell it in their online store). There are other brands I'd recommend such as Canson, Strathmore, Moleskine and more. You can find watercolour papers at your local art store, Michaels or on Amazon.

I used Ranger's Archival Black ink, also found at Soul Paper. 

Please feel free to use purchased stamps! There are plenty of shapes that would be just lovely for this purpose - circles, squares, hexagons, mason jars, stars, hearts, journaling rectangles and more! You can be as creative as you want to with this. :)

For this project, I choose Daniel Smith Extra fine Watercolours. Please use any watercolours and supplies that you have already.

The Process:

• Tear a piece of paper out of the paper pad and place on your work surface.
• Ink up the stamp that you want to use
• Press the inked stamp firmly on the paper and lift it up off the page
• Repeat stamping as many times as you wish (to fill up the paper in the manner you want). Make sure to leave room for your notes.
• Finish stamping a few pages and then set them aside.
• Grab your watercolours, put some water into a water jar (I like to use a tea cup that I only use for watercolouring) and find a paint brush and pen/marker. I used a round, size 7 Holbein paintbrush but just about any brush that you prefer can work. Bring these to your work station.
• Start swatching! You can use your preferred method or mine.

Swatching:

• I dip in my brush into the water, then pick up some watercolour paint and cover the top 1/3rd of the space.
• Then I dip my brush briefly, about half way into the water, bring it out of the water and drag the brush against the top of the water cup to remove some water. Paint the next third of the space (the middle portion).
• Finally, I dip my brush into the water to clean it. I drag my brush against the cup to remove some water. 
• Then I touch the lower of the 2nd part (1/3 rd watercoloured space) on the paper to drag some of that colour into the bottom 1/3 rd of the space. 
• Ideally, the top will look saturated, the middle portion will look a little less saturated and the bottom portion should look very diluted and transparent.
• Continue swatching with each colour, making sure to label the colour after each swatch.
• Note: if you plan to create a journal, like I do, try to leave some space at the right side of the page for coil binding (or keep in mind your spacing needs for whatever binding system you choose to use).

HAVE FUN!

If you create some swatches, I'd love to see them! Just tag me @aglimpseofjoy on Instagram or on Facebook.

Smiles, Heidi

P.S. Please make sure to sign up for my newsletter if you haven't already. I have some beautiful products created with my art that I plan to debut on my website Autumn 2022!! And a SALE will start on Sept 1st. :)