Peaceful Moments

brush sketch on watercolour paper - Jo Sonja design

Click on image for larger

This brush sketch is painted on watercolour paper in the same style as the previous post (girl vignette).

The design was from a Jo Sonja Jansen book (one of my favourite artists, she is so inspirational).

On the larger image (click the thumbnail), you can see that I actually wrote on there the colours I used, which were the same colours in the girl vignette.

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Girl & Bird Vignette

This quick sketch was done on watercolour paper with JoSonja artist gouache.

I sponged the background on using a couple of colours on top of each other. I think the main colour for the background was Smoked Pearl.

Use only small amounts of paint and you can get quite good drybrush type effects.

Keep it simple, let the strokes speak for themselves – no complicated shading or floating. Just vary the pressure of your strokes, adding more thin layers to give shape.

I also used a spattering (flyspecking) effect at the end. Water down the paint (do a test spatter first on scrap paper to test the amount) then use another brush, or similar implement to tap the brush with paint in it, releasing spatters over the painting.

Remember, less is more.

Folk Art Card

Want to do something creative, that you can give to friends and family?

Try handpainting your own cards.
This one was painted onto pastel paper with josonja artist gouache paints. The texture on the paper helped give a drybrush effect without really trying. Great fun!

I trimmed the bottom of the top page with a craft knife to give a more unique edging.

You could use any type of paper, as long as it is thick enough to stand up.
I adapted this design from a Jo Sonja Jansen book (can’t remember which one), but this style is great for ‘just doodling’.