Artline Monday - Spring watercolours

I love spring, I love seeing the world bloom with colour again after the wet, grey months of winter and I feel energised and renewed.  I wanted to mark the start of the season in my journal with lots of pretty florals and I had an idea to paint some flowers watercolour style with my Artline paint and chalk markers.

Welcoming spring in my journal

It was a complete experiment but I am happy with how they turned out so I thought I would share with you how I did it step by step in case you wanted to do something similar.  This is a quick and easy way to dip your toe into watercolours without having to buy an expensive palette of paints or a nice craft project for your children over the upcoming Easter holiday! 

The supplies

You will need some watercolour paper or any other kind of paper that can withstand you using water on it, I used my tomoe river notebook because the paper is super strong.  You will also need some poster and/or chalk markers, a paint brush and a waterproof pen like the Artine 853 OHP marker.

Starting the flowers

Use your poster or chalk marker to draw a circle or semicircle for the base of your flower and then go into it with a wet paintbrush to spread the paint out into a flower shape.  You want the paint to be darker at the bottom of the flower and fade as it goes up to the top of the petals.  This doesn't have to be perfect, just spread the paint out until you have a general shape.

Waiting for the paint to dry

Paint as many flowers as you like and then wait for the paint to dry.

Adding details

I used my 853 OHP marker to draw some stems and leaves on my flowers, these details change the paint from looking like blobs of colour and into blooms!  Again these don't have to be perfect, imperfections make the flowers look more interesting anyway.

White highlights

The last step was to add some specks of white paint to the flowers using my Artline 444XF paint marker and then I was finished.

The finished flowers

I think I will try to use my poster and chalk markers for more watercolour art now I know that they work well, the key to it is just adding the water quickly and using the brush before the paint sets on the page.  I am already picturing sunset skies with pink and purple streaks and seascapes, I can't wait to get started!

Please let me know if you give it a go!