Watercolor Postcards: Painting Your Favorite Memories | Chris V | Skillshare

Playback Speed


1.0x


  • 0.5x
  • 0.75x
  • 1x (Normal)
  • 1.25x
  • 1.5x
  • 1.75x
  • 2x

Watercolor Postcards: Painting Your Favorite Memories

teacher avatar Chris V, Artist, Designer, Maker

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Watercolor Postcards: Painting Your Favorite Memories

      2:29

    • 2.

      SS Postcard Project

      4:22

    • 3.

      Tools & Materials

      4:55

    • 4.

      Color Palette

      1:30

    • 5.

      Postcard Inspiration

      2:53

    • 6.

      Choosing What to Paint

      2:49

    • 7.

      Sketching the Postcards

      3:28

    • 8.

      Postcard Painting 1

      7:22

    • 9.

      Postcard Painting 2

      7:08

    • 10.

      Postcard Painting 3

      8:00

    • 11.

      BONUS VIDEO: Postcard Backings

      7:09

    • 12.

      Process Overview

      0:54

    • 13.

      Finishing Up

      1:03

    • 14.

      Bloopers

      0:46

    • 15.

      I Have News!

      1:39

  • --
  • Beginner level
  • Intermediate level
  • Advanced level
  • All levels

Community Generated

The level is determined by a majority opinion of students who have reviewed this class. The teacher's recommendation is shown until at least 5 student responses are collected.

68

Students

18

Projects

About This Class

Photos and gift shop postcards will always be treasured! But what if you took it up a few notches with an even sweeter way to remember your trips, excursions, family outings, and even what you dream of experiencing? 

That's where watercolor postcards come in. Watercolor painting makes even the ordinary look beautiful, and watercolor postcards are a wonderful way to create lasting memories and keepsakes. You can make them for yourself, or make them to send to friends and family. They will be so impressed!

Join me in Watercolor Postcards: Painting Your Favorite Memories to learn how I use watercolor painting to capture my favorite moments, experiences, and things I want to remember. I'll be focusing on landscapes, but you are free to paint whatever you like! I can't wait to see what you create. :-)

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Chris V

Artist, Designer, Maker

Teacher

Struggling with your watercolor painting, drawing, fashion illustration, or having a hard time getting a watercolor or drawing project done to your liking?

Get some help by booking a 1-on-1 Session with me so I can walk you through how I would approach your particular issue, and get you moving closer to your art big goals! It's affordable, and could be just what you need right now.

Ready? Click the Book Now link above in the purple image, and schedule a session with me today!

Chris V. :-)

Hello! I'm Chris V., a watercolor artist, designer, online instructor, and desert dweller living on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada, and I'm so glad you're here!!!

You're invited to my FREE watercolor student community in Skool!... See full profile

Level: Intermediate

Class Ratings

Expectations Met?
    Exceeded!
  • 0%
  • Yes
  • 0%
  • Somewhat
  • 0%
  • Not really
  • 0%

Why Join Skillshare?

Take award-winning Skillshare Original Classes

Each class has short lessons, hands-on projects

Your membership supports Skillshare teachers

Learn From Anywhere

Take classes on the go with the Skillshare app. Stream or download to watch on the plane, the subway, or wherever you learn best.

Transcripts

1. Watercolor Postcards: Painting Your Favorite Memories: I love taking loads of photos when I travel or when I'm want a day excursion. I also love finding beautiful postcards and gift shops and keeping them as souvenirs to remember my adventures. But as a watercolor painter, I longed for a more inspiring way of documenting my fondest memories, and that's when I decided to start creating watercolor postcards. Hi, I'm Chris, a former fashion and Iwar retail manager and buyer, turned full time online creative teacher. I'm also on the design team for sustainable watercolor Pat grab the viva Colors. I've done featured workshops for Bonnie Christine and Emily Jeffords memberships. I've been a podcast guest on several shows, including Scott Perry's creative on purpose show, featuring repeat guests at Godin. As a watercolor teacher, my goal is to teach you how to break through the crippled effects of perfectionism and find your creative voice. That means my classes are no pressure learning zones where you can come and play and explore with no judgment. Watercolors are my favorite medium, and also perfect for making beautiful hand painted postcards that you can keep as momentos or send to family and friends. They're fun, and easy to create. Don't take much time. Plus, they are much more meaningful than a photo or a store bought postcard. And as a bonus, you get to do some fun watercolor painting. The subject matter can be anything you like, for example, a lovely view, an attraction you enjoyed, or some activities you did. But you don't have to be traveling to create beautiful postcards. A staacation might have you capturing a quick painting of your backyard or a state park. A day excursion could mean painting fun city scapes or nature locations. And holiday themes are perfect for postcard painting any time of the year. In this class, I'll show you how I choose what to paint on my postcards, how I quickly sketch them out, and how I decide what colors to use. I'll also show you what techniques for quick paintings that you can complete in between your busy activities. This class is for beginners to experienced watercolor artists who just want to try something new and use their spare time for some relaxing painting projects. Ready to capture your special memories with some fun and easy watercolor painting. I'll see you in the next video to get this project started. 2. SS Postcard Project: Your project in this class will be to paint at least one postcard using the following class lessons as a step on step to guide you through the process. I'll share everything from the tools I'm using, how I'm getting expired about what to paint, what colors to choose, creating a good sketch, if needed, and tips for painting the final project. My watercolor painting on the go class will be a great additional reference for lots of travel painting and on the go painting techniques. But it's not necessary for completing this class. I'll be using minimal supplies, and as a bonus, I'll direct you to a video of how I've streamlined my travel painting kit over the years, so with lightweight and easy to use on the go. Just to note that as you go through this class, painting your memories doesn't mean they have to be exact replicas. That's what photos are for. This is far more precious work, and we'll focus more on how to capture your impressions of what Your enjoyment and relaxation are way more core than getting it perfect. Remember to have fun in this process and know that your final outcome will probably be far better than you think it will be. I know this from experience. We creatives can pretty harsh on ourselves. So keep an open mind. Once you're finished painting your postcard, stand back. And if you don't like what you see at first, step away for a few hours or even a couple of days. You might be surprise when you see your postcard pata after spending some time away from them. And sitting back at at least six feet, how should co see them with fresh eyes? Please, give yourself some grace and allow your own style, color choices and brushwork to take the four friends. Just because you don't feel experienced or confident doesn't mean your work isn't good. When you turn in your project, I will be honored to give you personal feedback and answer any questions you might have to help you along the way. First, you'll go to the Projects and Resources tab under the Class videos. Then click the Green Create Project button. From there, you want to upload your cover image for your project. Choose a file. Then click, submit. From here, if you want to replace your image, just click the button below. Find an image, and below, you can make it larger or smaller with the slider or you can drag it side to side to position it. When you're happy, just click, submit. Now your project needs a title. It can be funny, descriptive, or whatever you like. Below is your personal project field. Click Image to add image files. Then position your cursor underneath the image to add descriptions. I'm adding a series of images to show my entire process for this project. You can do it anyway you like. Below, you can also add a video or links. When you're done, just click the green Publish button. Once it's published, you can go below the videos and see your project on the right hand side. When you click on it, you can see that all your images have uploaded. On the right is where people can comment and like your project. I comment on every project, so I can't wait to see you in this space. If you need questions answered, please reach out to me in the discussions page of the class under the class videos, and I'll be happy help. Also, I'll be offering a new one on one session through scale share to help you with travel peeing while you're on the go. So if you'd like stra help, by getting my eyes on your work to help you along, I'll leave a link where you can book a private session with me below in the project description. I'll see you in the next lesson to talk about what you need for this project. 3. Tools & Materials: All of the supplies I We for this project are on this table right now. As far as paints go, I'm going to be mainly using my iviva colors spring watercolor pan set. This pan set is cork, and all of the colors are made with natural dice from the earth. This paper palette is the That's not glossy, but slick so that you can make your colors on it very easily. This entire set is biodegradable and comes with a color swatching card, which is super helpful because sometimes the pants don't look like what they're supposed to be. I'm also going to be using a Viviva colors color sheets set. Now, the difference between the color sheets and the pan sets is that the pan sets are light fast, where the paints are not supposed to fade. I the light, the color sheets are not light fast. However, I have a lot of my paintings out on the wall and so forth. And I haven't noticed much fade with them. Although they're not in direct sunlight, but these color sheets are just as vibrant as these. They last just as long as the pan set. And these both last as long as a normal half pan watercolor set by any other company I've used. So these sheets, although they're flat and on thick cardboard sheets, these squares last just as long as one of those. They're separated with some wax paper so they don't mix together or stick together. And there are quite a few colors in here that are very basic that I might use in addition to what's here. So that is the color sheets. This one also comes with a fly out palette that is super handy, so I never have to carry around a paint palette with me when I'm using these paints. Every set they make is 100% sustainable, biodegradable, so I feel like I'm being really responsible to the environment using these as well. So for paper, I'm going to be using this artist loft watercolor paper pad, it's four by six. And these little postcard sizes are really, very much perfect for what I'm going to be doing. You can see this is a regular postcard and it's exactly the same size. So that's the paper. I'm going to be using a medium round brush and a small round brush. Technically, this is size seven, and this is size three. But since these sizes are not standardized internationally or company wise, or There's no actual standard. I just call this small and this medium sized. If you want direct exact measurements, this is about half an inch, long, maybe a little bit longer, but not much. And this one is about an inch. I'm also using a pencil and eraser. This is a palmer eraser, but gummy erasers also work well for art because neither one of these kinds of erasers leave black marks on your paper. So that is nice. I keep a little paint brush from my garage to brush eraser dust off, so I'm not wiping my hand on my paper that might have paint on it or dirt or whatnot. So that's what that's for, and then I'm going to be using a ruler later on. Have two jars of water. I used to use one all the time, but then I was getting up to change my water a lot more, and I just find my brushes are kept cleaner when I have this additional jar of water to rinse them. And then, of course, some paper towels or rags to dry my brushes, pick up messes, do lifting, and so forth, which I'll be showing you. This is a Strathmore 3.5 by five sketch book. It's not watercolor paper, it's not precious. It's not expensive. And so if I need to test colors, this is the perfect thing if I need to do that before I actually put the paint to paper. I've done for months and he actually years of testing on. He I've done lettering testing and just all kinds of little it's my scratch pad for watercolor paintings. So this is an additional thing that you don't absolutely need, but it's very helpful to have if you have blank paper syndrome. This is a great fix for it. Also have a black micron size eight. This is Archival Black Ink, which means it doesn't run if I put it down and I paint over it or fine liner of some kind because we're going to be doing some extra detail on the back of our postcards later on. That will be a fun little addition to what we're working on. And that's it. That's everything we're going to be using today for this project. I'll see you in the next video to get started. 4. Color Palette: Your color palette will depend on what you're painting. If you're painting a certain subject with particular colors, you can stay close to those as you can, or you can be creative and change the colors to something else that you prefer. Because it's your paint, you get to decide now. But if you're not experienced with using color, this can be a bit intimidating. So please note that this is not about perfection and total accuracy. It's about expression, and everyone's expression is a bit different. That's why so many people think they're painting or wrong or not good, but your own unique expression is valuable and needed in the world. And it's okay if you don't know how to mix a certain color. Just use the next best thing and don't let the details derail you. You may want to come up with a repeatable color palette for all of your paintings just to keep things simple, and so you don't overdo it on the color. That's what I'll be doing in this class. Or you may just want to be spontaneous and paint exactly what you see as you see it. Either way is your choice and based on what makes you the happiest. I'll be working with my favorite color palette, which was inspired by this very desert, because it obviously will be working so in this case. Decide how you're going changes color for your postcard, and I'll see you in the next lesson to get inspired. 5. Postcard Inspiration: Painting postcards may sound fun, but choosing what to paint could be a bit intimidating at times, especially if you have lots of options and ideas or equally no ideas at all. I'm here to tell you that whatever you Pete would be an amazing gift for anyone to receive. So please take the pressure off about using the perfect subject matter. 'cause I don't think that's really an issue here. You're welcome to Pete the same subject matter over and over again on multiple postcards, if that's what you prefer, or to keep your subject matter super simple so that it's quick and easy for you. Whether you're on vacation, on a day excursion, or just in your backyard. It can be difficult to figure out exactly what's seeming to paint. That's why I generally stick to what's right in front of me and what seems to capture my attention the most. But what if my favorite inspiration ends up being super complicated like a lush landscape, for example? I'll show you some techniques to simplify and reduce the time taken for seemingly overwhelming details. I'll show you how to naw your focus, to only see what's important to you to simplify your paints. If you're traveling as you're watching this class, and want to do some planar painting or outdoor on the go travel painting for your postcards. This will be super fun and will add even more romance to your project. However, painting on location is not necessary to create beautiful postcards. For this class, I will be pulling images of a recent trip to a desert state park, from my photo wheel. I'll create a set of three coast cars with different subject matters. Let me take you along while I select my reference images for Painting. There is no shame in painting from photos. In fact, you might find yourself more relaxed back at your hotel or back at home where you can sit down with access to a table, water, et cetera. There are so many ways to do this. And I just want you to know that there is no wrong way. Do what feels best and most natural to you and enjoy the process. If you're new to this, you might not know the answer to that, right now, but diving in and trying things out will certainly help you get there. L et me know in the discussions tab under the class videos, if you'll be painting on the go, or if you'll be painting for photos from a secure location. Will you be painting on a trip or was you're back home? Maybe you're not traveling at all, and you just want to paint a location you're dreaming about. I've done this plenty of times, and it has been both relaxing and great practice. Just to note that if you'll be painting on the go, I have another sale share class that you can reference, call watercolor painting on the G, where I take you step by step. You're my travel painting process, my travel art supply kit, and loads of techniques to help you save time along the way. I'll see you in the next lesson. 6. Choosing What to Paint: If you plan to paint more than one postcard, it really helps to do a little bit of pre planning. That's where storyboarding is super helpful. I don't storyboard before every project, but with a project like this, it's super helpful to narrow down the choices of what I want to paint. Otherwise, it can get really overwhelming, and when we're overwhelmed, it's really hard to get started. Storyboarding allows me to get all my ideas down in one place where I can see them at a glance and strategize which projects I want to paint and which ones I want to leave out. In other words, storyboarding is a great sorting process. I'm going to Storyboard. A recent excursion I took to a nearby state park here in the Mojave Desert. I took lots of pictures to be sure I'd have a selection of fun things to capture later on. First, I'll make a list of all the things I might want to paint on my postcards. Then I'll use my list to sketch a thumbnail in each of these storyboard boxes. Please know, many times it's possible to paint in the moment and capture beautiful memory or experience on the go. But sometimes life happens, and we don't have the time or opportunity. In those cases, please keep in mind that painting from pictures can be just as effective and fine as painting on location. Be sure to snap a picture of the subject matter you want to capture and then revisit it later on when you have your paints. In this class, I'll be working from these images. But if you'd like more practical advice on how to paint on location, wherever you are, you can reference my skill share class, watercolor painting on the go. If you don't have time to do story pouring, another way to decide what to paint is to go through your photo reels. Take a quick look at the images you took and see what photos jump out at you right away. I really like this one. And this one and this one. So it looks like I'm focusing on landscapes because that's what's really getting me excited to paint right now. But I really like the wild flowers, too. So maybe I'll keep those images aside and do them at a later time. Popping those into a separate folder is really helpful. So I don't have to look through all my photos to find them again when I'm ready to peek. Then I can narrow them down from there if I need to. Look for shots that could be simple to paint, but mostly which ones are your favorites? Because let's face it. Those are going to be the most fun. Regardless of what conditions you're painting in, the main idea is to gain clarity on how your postcard paintings might come together. Once I have those ideas, I feel much more confident to move forward. Go ahead and storyboard your ideas, and I'll see you in the next video for some sketching. 7. Sketching the Postcards: The sketching process can be really painful for a lot of art students because of a big misconception. Assuming that the sketch needs to be a perfect detailed drawing. This trips up so many people so badly that they never make it to the painting process, which is the best part, right? The tri about a sketch is that it's different from a drawing, which is the finished piece of artwork that you could spend hours, days or even weeks on. A sketch is simply a rough draft of what you'll be painting moly for the purposes of placement. That means the only purpose of a sketch is to guide your brush and not be a perfect depiction of the subject matter. Kick the pressure off and make your sketch as quick and simple as it needs to be so you can get to the fun part. I'll put a minimum amount of lying on my postcard sketch just to keep them super simple. In some cases, I won't need sketching at all. For example, for large painted areas and shapes. Be sure to keep your pencil marks as light as possible, unless you want them to show to your painting. If you can't quite do that in the process, you can always lighten them once your sketches are finished. Even if your pencil marks show true. This can be a very charming aspect, so it's not necessarily a negative. The main thing is to re and have fun with every single part of this project, and don't worry about how your project will be perceived by others. There's a good chance whoever's getting this postcard is going to be super impressed regardless. Ohh 8. Postcard Painting 1: Now it's finally time to get out the paint supplies and get them color down. If you are creative in any way, this is gonna be your favorite part of the process because we get to as a vote with color. Let's get this painting part and started. I'd love to start painting my first project. And part of my plan to keep paintings going faster is to paint the top and then paint the bottom and while they're drawing, start somewhere in the middle, and that just keeps my painting moving a little more quickly. I'm going to be using my springs pan set, as I mentioned from Viviva Colors. I'm going to start with the sky, and I'm going to start with the cobalt blue, which is this one here. And I'm going to move on to my shrubbery. I'm going to use a combination which I've mixed here olive green and then add a little bit of And just going to finish the shrub line here. That's a than what I wanted. It's better. Darker than what I wanted. And this is still a bit darker than what I wanted. I'm just going to rewet it, which lightens it because I have more water in my brush. And maybe even just dab it a little, which is called lifting. I'm also going to do some lifting, while this paint is kind of fresh. Right here, where the bottom of that tree starts to show its branches there. See how I lighten that. That's all I need. So now, this has got to dry. This is completely dry. So I can start my sandstone. And I'm just gonna use this Indian red. Yeah, just dive right in. Is. And now that it's drying, I'm going to take my detail brush. And I'm going to go in with another dark layer of this. I don't leave a lot of water in my brush. I dry it, so it's just damp, and it absorbs this paint really nicely and moves well because it's not so dry. And I'm going to start adding some just lobs and dots. And they'll get bigger as they come this direction because in the foreground things are closer, and the background things are further. So I'm just going to just keep it really small up here. The tip of the brush when I start is the thinnest, so I definitely want those to be on the outside of these tiny spiny looking branches that go out. See, that's thicker on the outside. I want to keep the end of my brush on the outside of this That's That's great. For a first pass. On the second pass, I can go much darker. I'm going to take my color sheets because I have a nice dark on this one. I burnt umber. I'm going to open my palette for this color sheet set so I can control what color I have. I'm done. Put this one aside and start the next one. 9. Postcard Painting 2: I'm going to go right into this with the sky. So get into my cobalt blue. That's all the blue I'm going to paint. And I'm going to move down here. Now, to do this, I'm going to add a very light brown, and I'm going to use this burnt umber from my color sheets. I'm going to make it very, very light. And I'm going to start covering this ground over here. I'm going to leave that. I can make some more detail with it later. Use my olive green and some and mix that lovely green that I've been using. And there's a yucca tree up here. I'm just going to completely ignore. It's just not worth spending the time on that level of detail. I am going to continue here just above the fence with some of these ds and dots. Now that this is d, and this is dry, I'm going to go ahead and move on to my mountain area. I kept that for the last part because it's kind of the smaller part of this entire painting. And while that's drying, I can go on to my fence. So you can see, as we're working opposite sides of the painting, I can keep the insides moving. I'm going to go back to the brown I used in my color sheets. And then I can add some lines here. Even though I don't see too many in the images. It's okay. Add the same kind of texture to keep the story going and come right down with this. It's it's going to be a little more shaded here. So, you see, really quickly, with just a little bit of detail, I can start telling a story that is accurate without being too detailed. And with my detailed brush, I'm going to go back in with some olive and really touch up some of the shrubbery and trees. I'm going to make a little bit of detail down here at the base of this to show some rocks and grave stuff down here. I might want to take my orange. A really concentrated amount, and just dab some of these flowers in here that are peeking through the fence post. And we are done with this one. 10. Postcard Painting 3: Hey, now, let's do another one. Again, I'm going to start with the sky and Cobalt blues on and after. I'm going to pick up my postcard and get right up to the edge and continue on down. Oh Next, I'm going to go to the bottom because then I can let that dry safely. I'm going to go ahead and go straight into this green here, this mixture of olive and and cover all of this foreground with it. And I know this paper is starting to buckle already, but that's okay. We're going to be able to flatten it down the line. So just go to keep right on going. And this is dry up here now because I didn't get it too awfully wet, and that's the key to keeping this project moving. So at this point, I am going to use my Indian red. I'm going to start painting these mountains right at the top while this is drying. And by the time I get done with the top and the middle, I should be able to paint against this bottom part of the shrubbery. So going right up to the blue, so I don't leave any white spots. Going to run my brush in sort of a jaggedy motion, making sure I get all those spaces filled up. And I'm going to take another pass at this color. I'm going to dab this time because it kind of releases the pigment from my brush when I dab it out. And because there's water, it's just going to travel. And I'm going to go do the same thing with the middle. Going all the way across this time. I wish I hadn't painted over my fence post. I could just lift a little bit of that. It's called lifting and you take your towel or paper towel and remove the paint by absorbing it off the page. I'm going to take the opportunity to paint inside this fence post right now while I have this color going, so it matches. And it stops right about here. O. This is pretty dry. So I'm going to go ahead and paint the fence post, a lighter brown, which is going to be a combination of brown and gray coming from the color sheets. So I am going to put down some burnt umber. Let me just open this up. And I really need my small round brush for this because that is a tiny little fence on this postcard. And that should take care of that. While that is drying, I'm going to go back to my olive green and Vidian. And I'm going to start down here where there are just a lot of stems, and I need it to be a little thicker because there's just a whole lot going on. I'm going to just make some irregular lines and leave some of the light showing. This is actually going to be a take off on some negative space because the stems in this image are the lighter color here. But that would just be a lot to paint. It's just a lot to take on on a quick project like this. So I am just going through and painting some very faint lines in this darker color and leaving the lighter color to be portrayed as the stems. Now that this is pretty dry, I'm going to come back over with some darker and give it a little depth and dimension. Just keep my strokes light. And now it's starting to look are like it makes visual sense. I'm going to continue on with this brush and get into this orange now. I don't need to mix it. This is the orange I want, and I know I want it super concentrated, so I'm gonna go ahead and just grab it the way it is. I'm going to have to be aggressive because these mountains have a lot of orange in them already. And I'm just gonna just put dots and dabs here. Time to extend these stems, so this makes a little more sense. I'm gonna try and get as dark green as I can. And we're done. 11. BONUS VIDEO: Postcard Backings: Now that my postcards are dry, you can see that they've buckled a little bit under the water. Not too much, really considering I put it to the test for sure, but it came out pretty nice. F a little bit of color there. And if you do get color on the back side of your postcard and you don't want it there, you can just take a clean brush and just give it a little wiggle and take your paper towel. And lift just dab, basically, don't rub because you'll damage your paper. But look at that. It's gone. I mean, there's a pint of it. I can do that one more time. It would be gone for sure. And when it dries, it'll be even lighter. So that's a tip for you. But on the curling part, something I do is very gently, bend it back the other way, and with my fingers, it's just sort of curl it. If it's curving one way more than the other, then I work that extra, but be very careful not to bend your paper. This one's sitting pretty flat now. I'm going to take and put all three of these under some heavy books for about half a day or so. See that's sitting pretty flat now, too, but I don't want it to pop back out. I could leave it curvy. And then people know it's a real painting. So that makes it fun. But if you don't want it curvy, then you have this little tip, and you can see they're all three of them much straighter now. So we have three nice postcards to send. These are real postcards from this State Park, Red Rock Canyon in Nevada. And I just want to turn them over. These are two different orientations. This one is portrait, and this one is landscape. But regardless of that, on the back, the actual back of the postcards is the same. So I'm going to go ahead and do that with mine as well. And the first thing we're going to do is grab my micron pen and my ruler. And I'm going to make a line in the center. I'm going to make a little bit of a mark at the three inch line. This is archival black ink meaning. If I get it wet, it won't run, and I probably won't on this back side, but because it is involved with the watercolor painting, I'm just going to go ahead and use it. And I'm going to stop just a little short of the end. This has a little bit of history about the park and a scan code. This used to be a little square for the stamp, but everyone knows the stamp goes there. I also went online and looked at some different postcard backing designs, including some vintage ones. There were some really fun little tricks and things that you can add to your postcard backing. I am going to just make a general area for the stamp, just rough it out. And guess at the stamp size. And then I want a line here here here and here. And I'll leave this bottom part blank. This will all be blank over here. With my ruler, I am going to line this up on the side and match up my marks. Now I'm going to do the same with this stand. I'm going to just eyeball it. I'm going to try to keep this line even with the side. I think that's a good shape. And then I'm going to add a little bit of scalloping for some whimsy. And I have a nice, charming little postcard backing to send to someone. And even if I put this in an envelope, I can put their name on here, and then write a cute little note over here. For my next one, I'm going to do something similar. Okay, so that's another one. And instead of just leaving this one blank, I think I'm just going to add a little bit of flower detail to this one. And it was an to the flowers on the front. So you can paint anything you want in your stamp to make it whimsical and tie into the front or do something completely different. It's trying really fast, so I can go ahead and keep going on this. And there's a little sort of a miniature version of what's on the front. This one I can just leave blank and write on the entire thing, put it in an envelope and off it goes, or even write this way. So lots of options with this. 12. Process Overview: This was so much fun. We went over a lot of steps in these lessons. Let's do a quick overview to give you a look at all the things you weren't. We got the tools and materials out, and went over inspiration. You decided if you'll paint your colors from a dedicated color palette or more spontaneously. We did some storyboarding to get the ideas organized. We started to sketch out every postcard, and some might not have needed much sketching if there were larger blocks of color and minimal detail. Then we painted each and every postcard. I also showed you how to add some details to the back of your postcards to make them look like the real thing. I cannot wait to see your hand painted postcards in the project gallery and see what you painted. 13. Finishing Up: I hope you enjoyed making handmade watercolor postcards with today. It's always the joy to have you in the studio with me. And I'm so glad you came. I can't wait to see what lovely postcards you get inspired to paint and what subject matter you choose. Every student will have a little different twist of this project, and your uniqueness is your superpower. So I really hope you'll share your project with us in the project gallery. You could find instructions for uploading your project in the second video of this class called your Project. Don't forget if you have any questions or comments, you can ask them in the discussions tab under the class videos by typing into the blank field. And I would so appreciate your review so other students can find this class and enjoy it as well. Thank you again for being here today, and I cannot wait to see what postcard beauty you create. See you next time. 14. Bloopers: Aka can fix that. Can try it? Oh, my God. Really? How is this possible? Allow your own style, color choices and brushwork relax back at your hotel or back at home, where you can sit down with access to a table, water, et cetera. There are so many ways to do this. And as a bonus, you get to do some fun painting. And as a bonus, you get to and as a bonus. You get to do some fun, watercolor painting. 15. I Have News!: Hi. I'm Chris B. Did you know I'm now offering 11 sessions? They are 1 hour Zoom sessions that you can book to get a private lesson or consultation with me, and you don't even have to be a skill share member to book one. I have a few different kinds of one on one sessions you can choose from, depending on what you're looking to learn. So if you need some extra help with watercolor or sketching techniques, creating a balanced fashion illustration, a watercolor project critique to help you improve your art, or my newest, the travel watercolor painting one on one session. This new session is perfect to help you with the skills in this class, if you'll be painting while traveling. And also for my class called Watercolor Painting on the Go. Otherwise, you can sign up for a watercolor or sketching technique session. If you need help with something I haven't mentioned here, feel free to reply to one of my discussions or message me in one of my classes on Skillshare, on the discussions page, and let me know, so I can create a session just for you. Ready to get the focused personalized help you need to grow your art practice in the right direction. All you have to do is go to my Skillshare profile page, click the Book Now Leak. Choose a session. Click Book new, select a day and time up to 30 days in advance, and you'll even get notifications because who doesn't need reminders? Have you been struggling with the skill that has you stuck? Book a one oh one session with me today, and I can't wait to see you very soon.