10 Ways to Watercolor!
Hi everyone, it’s Shari here with 10 Ways to Watercolor! Have you been confused as to “what to try” when choosing items for watercoloring? I’m here to help you with a few tips and different types of items that are great to use to get your desired effect.
I’ll break the different types of watercolors down into groups:
- Dry Paint Pallette
- Watercolor Pencils
- H20’s
- Gelatos
- Peerless (dry paper)
- Sprays
- Inks (2 ways)
- Markers (2 ways)
Other important items are brushes and watercolor papers. For paper, I prefer the Tim Holtz Distress watercolor sheets for making cards. It is a true white paper and is cut 4.25″ x 5.5″. For larger projects, another great choice is Strathmore Cold press Watercolor paper 8.5″ x 5.5″.
Brush types can vary not only in size but also round, flat and type of bristles. I have two favorite brushes types that I use all the time, both being from Ranger. The first is the Studio Artist brush set. There is every size I need including wide flat brush for background washes down to super small for painting fine details. My other favorite is the Tim Holtz Detailer Water Brush with it’s amazing water reservoir! This brush can be filled with Distress Sprays, used to activate watercolor pencils and also for standard painting.
I’ve created a card using some of the sprays and inks that I show in my video where I’ve sampled different watercolor types.
And created a quick watercolor background using inks and the Moroccan Background stamp. I love how the inks mix on the paper to form new color.
I’ve put together a video using the types of watercolors that I have and how I use them for painting in a small flower stamped image plus a quick background for my card. . You can view the video below or on our YouTube channel.
There is another watercolor medium that I did not cover, being liquid or tube watercolor paints. Simon Says Stamp has a several sets available: the first being Sakura Koi (12 colors), the Grumbacher Acedemy (8 colors), the Windsor Newton Cotmon (6 colors), the Windsor Newton Cotmon (12 colors) and finally a nice little travel set the Royal Langnickel Keep and Carry set (6 colors). These paints are highly concentrated paste that you would squeeze out onto a pallet and use with water. They are very blendable and transparent, you can let them dry on your pallet to regenerate later with water as you would a dry pallet paint.
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I hope I have given you information on the types of watercolors available and how they are used to make your selections easier. Have a great weekend!
Card supplies:
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In my supplies below, I have listed complete sets on some items, please know you can shop for individual items to suit your needs.
Watercolor Supplies:
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Very pretty card! Thanks for the tips on the transparent liquid watercolors, have been meaning to five then a try!
I love watercoloring. Thanks for the tips. Definitely trying the papers. I dont like the ones I have tried so far.
So Beautiful!
I need to try this!
Thanks for all the information, it was great. Love the card.
Great information! Wonderful card
I adore watercolor mediums of all types! so fun to watch the video, thanks Shari!
Love this pretty water colored card. Great tips on paper and tools to get the best out of this technique. A pity the video wouldn’t load – I love your detailed tutorials!!
I need much more practice with water-colour, as it certainly is a challenge for me. Your video and these products: added incentive to keep on trying!
~c
Wow. Thanks for such an informative video!!! This was really great!!!
Cool techniques… I have put my water colour pencils to some good use…
I have to get the watercolors out and give them a try. Been a long time since they were out.
Thanks for sharing some great ideas.
Beautiful watercolour card! And thanks for the sharing the tutorial Shari!!
Love love love watercoloring! Gorgeous card Shari :-D
Watercolouring is my favorite. Beautiful card Shari and thanks for the video!
Stunning card! Great tips:)
Thank you so much for all this information. It is so helpful and you made a beautiful card!
I like the watercolor techniques they are fun and don’t know exactly what you’ll get until they are dry! Thanks for the inspiration Shari!
Stunning watercolor card, love it. Thanks for sharing all the tips and ideas, it’s so informative!!!
wow beautiful!! love this post since I love watercoloring!
what a great video Shari! Thanks for all the information and tips. I learned a lot!
Pretty card! Thanks for the info.
My crafting buddy just turned me on to the art of watercoloring my card creations … I am HOOKED … line and sinker. My favorite so far are the intense blocks and basic acrylic paint. LOVE the look!!
Gorgeous card! Love watercolors!
Wow! Thanks for all the tips on using watercolors. I have many of these same products and it was helpful to see how you recommended using them. I love the look of watercolor on cards and your card was beautiful.
WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!! Just BEAUTIFUL!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE thr Happy and Bright Colors and the Design!! THANKS for sharing and have a FABULOUS WEEKEND!! =)
Gorgeous as always!! I love when Shari does videos:)
thank you for the information, I like this technique I want to learn it.
wow… Awesome video. Thanks so much for sharing!
Gorgeous colors, wonderful technique!
Thanks so much for all the great information Shari. The Peerless sheets always blow me away!
I use Windsor and Newton in tubes for most colors and a few other brands for others. I also use color pencils and I have a set of Sakura Koi for traveling.
I never think to use my distress inks and stains to color.
I love the twinkling H2O’s. They really do shine and are fun to use.
The Sakura Koi are not as transparent as other watercolors. It’s great for travel sketches, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a main set of paints to buy first.
Yah, the video is working for me now:) It was definitely worth the wait; some beautiful coloring, products and great inspirational techniques. Thank you so much!!
Thanks so much for this video, Shari. I mainly use watercolor pencils (recently purchased the Pima watercolor pencils :) and your tips will be useful for my continued experiment into card making. You’re so talented and your card is lovely :)
Great video! I use most of these but I have yet to use the gelatos (I have bought them, but not used them yet). After seeing how easy it is I am going to give them a try later on today.
Beautiful card! Thank you for the video. I have the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors and am running out of one of the colors. Is there a way to purchase just one color or do we have to buy a whole new set?
This is fantastic! Love to watercolor! My favorite is with distress ink!
gorgeous card… now I really need that stamp set!! the video was super informative!
Love this as I’m still practicing with watercolors. Thanks for the video.
It is to get ashamed for, but I use allmost all the watercolour ways…. I simply love the way you can varry in colour and I love working with my waterbrush… Thanks for showing these ten ways!!
Love, love the card! This video was very helpful to me and informative. Thank you for sharing with us.
“You can fill the brush with distress sprays” … OMG, that just rocked my world. Why did I not think of that before??!!!
Very informative video! I needed that to decide what sort of watercolors to buy next. Thanks!
Wonderful techniques Shari ! Thanks for sharing :) I have to go get some supplies to try it out soon
Love all these products! Have to get some of them!!!
Love seeing the different watercolor mediums–now I want to get inky!
Great video love it !!!
Shari, you are a MASTER!
Very helpful video!! Thanks for the tips!
I adore watercoloring! I have pencils, distress inks and markers and a cake set, but haven’t tried the Peerless or mists. This is a terrific video explaining all of the different options. Thanks very much!
Thanks for all the information. My favorite is with distress ink ..But I have to try other methods!
Thank you for the watercolor tips. I didn’t know when to dampen my paper. Wonderful and very informative.