Watercolor Postcards Pt.1

My Christmas rocked! It was very relaxing and my friends and family spoiled me with awesome goodies. I got lots of Batman memorabilia and art stuff, so basically everything I wanted. Although I am grateful for all of my gifts, the one I have been utilizing most is a kit I got from my sister.

I've been wanting to get a more "serious" watercolor set for a while now. (aka one that doesn't have the word student or crayola on the outside) Luckily my sister is amazing and got me a wonderful watercolor field sketch box, a pack of watercolor paper postcards, and some aqua brushes. I have had a blast painting, find out more below!

I love love love these watercolors, they have a lot of pigment and were very inexpensive. (I got to pick them out and my sister just sent them along to me.) The postcards are made of a really high quality paper and work wonderfully with my paints. Also, having never used brushes that hold water in the barrel I don't think I could go back now. They make water coloring so much easier!

This field kit rocks! It comes with a removable palette, one brush, sponges to clean your brush on, and 24 highly pigmented squares of watercolor paints.

This was a 3-pack set with large, medium, and small size brushes.

 This was my first attempt at a postcard, and as an abstract I'm very happy with it. It looks like a beautiful almost unearthly sunset. I also like my trees, foliage has never been easy for me to render, so I'm really proud of them!

Unfortunately it does not look very much like my reference picture, taken by my friend Carly from Zauberbear. When my sister's package arrived a few days after Christmas, I already had my resolutions planned out and I was determined to begin on them right away, so I decided to paint Carly a version of one of her photos and ask her to be my pen pal. Hopefully we'll exchange a few letters and maybe even packages throughout the year and both of our mailboxes will be a happier place for it.

This was my second painting and I have to say it is my favorite so far. My sister is in the Air Force and has been stationed in Hawaii for the last few years. She's made lots of good friends, explored and hiked breathtaking locales, and met the love of her life there. Now, said husband and her have bought a house in Chicago Illinois and will be moving here to the mainland at the end of the month.

My sister took this picture on one of her many adventures of the islands and I wanted to replicate it for her to give her a tangible reminder of her home away from home.

Driving on the way to drop these beautiful babies off at the post office! Before I sent them off I made sure to spray them with a clear matte spray paint to protect the colors and keep them from running in case of "rain, sleet, snow or hail".

I had to pick up some amazing stamps at the post office because how could I resist!? These were released for the 75th Batman anniversary that was early last year. I could barely stand to use them but I also couldn't reasonably spend 10.00 on stamps I was just going to look at so I slapped 2 of these onto my cards and sent them on their way!

I will be working my way through that pack of postcards so I'll be sharing them occasionally on the blog. I also can't wait to take my watercolor field kit on my next Art Adventure Time.

Til Next Time!