First, let me say that I am not good with watercolors. Markers are more my things so this is kind of wonky and I think I used too much of the paint in certain areas. I still liked the way it turned out though. This was for the Holiday Decor Swap and my partner said she liked it. I followed a tutorial on her Pinterest. I thickened the outline some.
I made two of them because I like the artwork I hang up to coordinate.
The green bulb in the first one had to go behind the border because after I watercolored it, you could see my pencil mark still. When do you erase the pencil when you watercolor?
I’ve had the issue with pencil not erasing too. Some things to try would be to sketch very lightly or use a kneaded eraser to greatly lighten the pencil marks before watercoloring. You could sketch in watercolor pencil too and it would dissolve, but use very light pressure because you’ll still see the lines if you press hard with watecolor pencil too. They also have graphite pencils that dissolve in water, but this could muddy your colors. Another way is to ink the lines you want to keep and then erase the rest (or make it very light with a kneaded eraser) before watercolors. If the lines are fairly light before starting, most of the lines practically disappear when you paint as the watercolors will obscure them. Or maybe use a very fine watercolor brush and go over the pencil marks with darker watercolors to obscure them.
Thank you. They mentioned a kneaded eraser on the tutorial but I didn’t have one. It was torture for me to set this aside to let it dry between layers. As I said, I am a marker kind of girl. Ha! But I love the look of watercolor so much that I want to attempt it some more. I’ll try your advice. Thanks!
This awesome project is a Featured Project this week!