My son and daughter-in-law sent me a birthday gift of Emily Lex’s watercolor workbooks. The original order got lost in shipping somewhere (thanks, USPS :/ ) and after making several unhelpful phone calls to USPS, my son contacted the sender for help. It sounds like Emily Lex’s customer service was really good though, and a new shipment was sent promptly. (I wonder where all the lost packages go. Is there some giant, never ending warehouse of all the lost mail and boxes somewhere?)
Last night I put aside my fear of ruining these. (is it just me? Does anyone else struggle with making marks in something beautiful even when you’re SUPPOSED to make marks in it?)
There are links to a video on her website in the workbooks. It’s available for everyone to watch though – you don’t need to buy a workbook. It gives great tips on supplies, brushstrokes, making a color chart (so important!), and blending colors (and I haven’t even finished watching the whole thing!).
The workbooks are set up with basic sketches for you to paint, and there’s an example of how Emily painted it with step by step instructions. I appreciate the directions that are detailed enough to get me going, but still leave a lot of freedom for personal choices. For example, on the peony page, I wanted a deeper pink peony and a blue bottle instead of brown. Easy peasy – switch out the colors but follow along with the steps.
I tried watercolors a few years ago, before I tried oil paints, and I had a hard time making sense of how to use them to get the results I wanted. Oils and watercolors are definitely different, and I’m getting a little bit of a brain workout learning how to paint with watercolors (and I’m still learning how to paint with oils). I do love that watercolors don’t have any of the toxic ingredients that some oil paints and mediums have, and I love that I can leave paint on my palette to dry without feeling like I’m wasting it – just a bit of water to refresh the watercolor paint and it’s ready to go again. But I still love oils. A lot of my favorite artists paint with both, so I see no reason to choose only one. My husband says that I need to try ink next. Oh dear! I think I need an art studio!