Celtic Symbols with Watercolor Paint

1. 1. Introduction: My name is Melissa Rugs. I'm an artist, a graphic designer, and a teacher on Skillshare. In this class, I'm going to teach you how to use watercolor and an image transfer technique to create a beautiful work of art. This class is great for beginners or anyone wanting to try a new watercolor project. I've chosen a Celtic bowl design, but you can use any other imagery that you like. I have some templates posted in the resource section for you to use. At the end of the class, you'll have a watercolor painting to display or to give as a gift, and you'll be able to use the same techniques to create additional works of art. I encourage you to check out the class projects and resource section to see what other students have created, and to post your own finished work in there as well. If you're ready, let's get started. 2. 2. Materials: Slash, you'll need a ruler mat or a ruler and pencil. Painters tape. I'm using 1.5 inch wide regular string. Watercolor paper, I'd recommend at least 140 pound watercolor paint, I'm using tubes in different colors, a paint palette, paint brushes. I'm using a three quarter inch mop brush, a number four fan brush, and a number one filbert brush, a cup of water, paper towel or cotton rags, a pencil, charcoal, I'm using a stick of medium, but any will do, an image to transfer, and a hair dryer. I did try the project using 90 pound weight watercolor paper, and you can see that it's quite buckled. I wouldn't recommend using 90 pound. I would go 140 pound or 300 pound for this project. 3. 3. Set-up and Image Transfer: Start by taping my watercolor paper to my work surface. In this case, I have a piece of 140 pound watercolor paper. I've cut to 6 " by 7 ". I'm securing the paper using 1.5 inch wide painter's tape that I've detached on a cotton shirt. I like to detach my painter's tape before using it on watercolor paper just to minimize the risk of tearing some of the paper fibers off when I remove the tape later. I'd recommend doing this if using regular painter's tape. I'm securing my paper so that I have a 1 " white border all around my work area where I'll be applying watercolor paint. You can choose to make this border, whatever size you like. Working on a rule of mat like I am really helps with sizing and taping, but you can also use a ruler and a pencil if you don't have one of these to make sure that you're lining your tape up correctly on all sides. Next, I have my printout of my Celtic bowl design that I've printed on my home office in jet printer. When you print your image, take into consideration how big your final piece will be, you may need to scale your image before printing to ensure it comes out the correct size. Next, I'm going to take a piece of charcoal. This one is a medium softness, and I'm going to apply a generous layer on the back of the image. Once I've done that, I'll use painter's tape to secure the image to my work surface so that it sits in the middle of my watercolor paper. Once I like where the image is placed, I'm going to trace the outline with a pencil. I'll keep checking as I go to make sure that I'm using the right amount of pressure and then I'm not missing any part of the image. You don't need a lot of pressure on the pencil to transfer the image. I would recommend starting with a very light pressure and checking to see how well the image is transferring. You're going to be applying watercolor paint over top of the transfer charcoal image. If you go into dark, it will really show, and it won't look as nice if you can see any of the charcoal, especially if you're using lighter colors when you paint. Once I've traced the whole image, I'll remove the printout and go in with an eraser to lighten up my charcoal marks and to clean up the paper. I want my traced design to be as light as possible. You can save your image with the charcoal on the back and re use it over and over again. 4. 4. Painting: That I have my image transferred, I'm going to start applying my watercolor paint. I'm using tubes of paint and I've put some in my palette. I'm also using a mop brush and a fan brush. I'm going to use a wet on wet method first by wetting my paper with a lot of water on my mop brush. Then I'm going to go in with different colors on my fan brush, just dabbing the paint into the water and letting it spread out. I have a lot of excess water on my paper, so I'm going to dab that away lightly with a paper towel and then go back in with some more paint on my fan brush. I'm using 140 pound weight paper, and you can see it's buckling a bit. It should flatten out once it dries. This is why I wouldn't use a 90 pound weight paper for this project or when using wet on wet because the paper will buckle quite a bit. If you like, you can go up to 300 pound weight paper, which will hold up even better to all this water. You can let your project air dry, but to speed things up, I'm going to use a hair dryer. After, I'll go in for a second layer of paint. I want some bolder spots of color on here. I'm going to go back in with water on my fan brush and then use my fan brush to bring over some more of the paint. I'm going to keep applying the different colors with my fan brush. The nice thing about this project is no two pieces will come out looking the same because the water takes the pigment where it wants to, making each painting you make unique. After drying with a hair dryer again, there's a bit of water I don't want left on my paper. I going to it around with the fan. If the or slightly damp, it can help absorb some of the excess water. Now that my background is completely dry, I'm going to use a small filbert brush to add some of the dark blue water color paint into the outline of the bowl. I want this to be quite dark and pigmented, so I'm only adding a tiny bit of water. You could also use the paint straight from the tube for an even darker finish on your image if you like. 5. 5. Finishing and Final Project: Once your project is completely dry, you can gently remove the tape. I like to initial my work with a pencil. I'd love to see your projects. You can upload a photo or a video to the projects and resources section of this class, and take a look at what other students have uploaded. Thanks for joining me. I look forward to seeing what you make.