Technique #1 Intuitive Watercolor

My friend Patricia and I have decided to do the techniques in "Artist Trading Card Workshop: Create, Collect, Swap" by Bernie Berlin.

The first technique is INTUITIVE WATERCOLOR and I must admit that I was a bit dubious about this. I am a very "creative" person but am not very "artistic". For example I couldn't draw a pig but could see one in the clouds. :-)

So I sat down with an 8x8 canvas, my watercolors and a bottle of water. I mixed water and paint together to make a very transparent color. I used 3 colors; blue-green, lime green and turquoise. I swirled the colors onto the canvas with the brush and then splashed some on by "flicking" the brush over the canvas; causing splatters. Then I twisted and turned the canvas letting the paint swirl around. If I needed more paint, I added it. If I wanted more color, I added more paint to the water. I tried a hair dryer and a craft heat gun but found the best way to really move the watercolors over the canvas was to blow on it...sometimes soft and sometimes hard.

When I was satisfied that I had a good mix of colors I sat back and looked at it and couldn't believe what I saw. Sitting there perfectly was a bird... in a nest... in a tree. It was amazing. So I got out my fine-point marker and outlined what I saw. Here it is!

I painted the branches grey and added some color here and there to enhance areas. Then I added glitter, feathers, an ATC card with quote, raffia and the hanger. All in all, a very fun technique and one I want to try again. I definitely recommend this book and this technique although I think I might have had a bit of beginners luck! LOL
Here is the finished piece.