I recently started taking watercolor classes. Usually, when I want to learn how to do something, I watch videos online. But with this it was different. I knew I needed a professional artist to teach me what I need to know – in-person.
On the first day I showed up, I felt really unprepared. I brought my watercolor paints, my watercolor paper, a small glass of water to clean my brushes, annnnnd an envelope (yes an envelope) with three (yes three) watercolor brushes.
I hated putting my brushes in an envelope. I knew I didn’t want to mess up the tips, but I cautiously placed the envelope in my purse and off to class I went…I’m such a newbie.
Anyway, after seeing what the other attendees at the workshop had, I knew I had to up my game a bit, I really stuck out like a sore thumb!
First things first, I knew I needed to use something other then an envelope to hold my brushes.
My friend Chelle suggested a brush organizer she bought from Hobby Lobby. I immediately went to Hobby Lobby – and for $3 I had a home for my three brushes.
Once I got home, I decided to decorate it a bit because it was so plain. So, I used some multi-surface fabric paints I had at home and decorated my brush holder.
It turned out better than I had hoped.
I wasn’t planning on sharing the process, but decided otherwise during mid-creation.
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Here’s what I did –
The brush holder/organizer I have is from Hobby Lobby. But this holder is very similar and comes with some brushes.
Because I wanted the purples to stand out, I decided to paint the entire holder white. Note – The purple does show if it’s placed directly onto the black but it’s not as bright and vibrant as it is with the white.
This was the hard part, after painting two coats of white with this paint, I had to wait 24 hours for it to dry. I was so impatient that I allowed it to dry for 19.5 hours (actually it was more like 19 hours and 12 minutes – but who’s counting)?
Then I used this adhesive stencil. The adhesive did – yet didn’t stick. It had a mind of it’s own and stuck to areas it wanted to stick to, so I improvised with painters tape.
I used these sponge dabbers instead of a paint brush to paint onto the organizer. I did this for two reasons and two reason only. The paint dabbers are extremely cheap and I just threw them away when I was done.
Once I dabbed this lighter shade of purple onto the stencil, I just removed the stencil and placed it onto its next spot. It was super easy and I only did one coat.
The directions on this paint say to wait an hour between coats. That was way easier to do then the 24 with the white paint.
Although I liked how the purple turned out, I thought it was still a bit plain.
So, with a darker shade of purple and an old crusty all-purpose kids paintbrush, I painted in the flowers.
And that’s it. I love how this whole thing turned out.
The direct link for my “mid-way” thru process video is available on Instagram.
Close-ups
Supplies I used
Brush Holder (similar)
Stencil and Dabbers
Paints
