watercolor flowers

September 30, 2015

A Peek Inside My Sketchbook

Lauren Runyan Sketchbook, Watercolor art journal, flower drawings, flowers, sketchbook, watercolor flowers 0 Comments

Now that fall is here and the weather is getting cooler, I thought I would snatch up a few of my marigolds that I have growing in my yard and do some sketches before they are all gone. In this post I want to briefly share the process I go through when working in my sketchbook. Recently I have been experimenting with pen and watercolor. I usually start off by sketching the object, in this case the marigold, with pencil and then go overtop the pencil lines with the pen. I then use my kneaded eraser to remove the pencil marks. For this sketch I wanted to have the flowers right in front of me so that I could see all the details.

Here are the materials I used:

Watercolor sketchbook
HB drawing pencil & kneaded eraser
Black Sharpie pen
DaVinci ussuri sable watercolor brushes size 1, 2 & 4 round.
Daniel Smith extra fine watercolor paints; Cadmium Red Med. Hue, Hansa Yellow Medium, Cadmium Yellow Light Hue, & Hooker’s Green.
Paper towels, bowl of warm water & a palette for mixing the paint.

I then jump right in to putting the watercolors on the paper. I started these by getting the paper wet with water only (Wet on Wet) and then added the paint.

Here I only have one layer of paint, and as you can see the colors are pretty light.

I added another paint layer here which helps to deepen the colors.

It just didn’t seem complete without some foliage 🙂

What I love about working in my sketchbook is that it is very laid back and fun! It also gives me great ideas for larger pieces I may want to work on in the future. If you haven’t taken out your sketchbook in awhile, make today the day you start again!

August 20, 2015

A Peek Inside My Sketchbook

Lauren Runyan Sketchbook, Watercolor a peek inside my sketchbook, art journal, sketchbook ideas, watercolor flowers 8 Comments

Since having children, I have dabbled off and on with art over the past eight years. With the busyness of life, art always seems to end up on the back-burner; but I can’t leave it there for long. Now that I have four young children, I don’t have the time or energy to tackle large pieces like I did in the past. While my favorite medium is oil painting, it is too messy and toxic to have around my young children. Recently, as an alternative, I started exploring watercolor and I love it! Unlike oil painting, watercolor is much harder to control. The paint and water seem to have a mind of their own, doing things I may not have intended, but love in the end. I have found that the more children I have, the more flexible and laid back I have become as a person. That may be why I enjoy watercolor more now than I did in the past. I guess I am not as much of a control freak, so watercolor now seems more fun!

Nowadays I work mainly in my sketchbook, and it has been the perfect creative outlet. I am able to create things that inspire me and experiment with new ideas in a relaxed way. If you enjoy art and don’t have a lot of time to create large pieces, or any pieces for that matter, I would encourage you to consider taking up a simple sketchbook. It is a fun, quick, pressure-free way to let your creativity flow!

Here on My Beautiful Everyday I want to start posting photos that give you a peek inside my sketchbook. Here is what I’ve been working on.

As you can see, I like flowers. Always have. I have been working on combining watercolor with pen. It has a much more relaxed feel to it than what I am used to, but that is what makes it so fun! So relax, go grab a sketchbook and have fun being creative!