water paper paint

For a Christmas present to myself I bought a copy of Heather Smith Jones book Water Paper Paint. I’m sure I’ve raved here before about Heather’s artwork, so I was thrilled last year when I found out she was releasing a book. I swooned when the book arrived, because the cover paper has a watercolor-paper-like texture to it. A truly perfect book for this artsy girl who also works for a printing company and loves everything book, paper and ink related.

1.1.11 circles

The book is filled with projects and so I’ve been making myself go through it in order and not skip around. I took Watercolor in college and still use the paints all the time. One of the things I love about Heather’s work is that she uses it like I like to use it – in mixed media. I’m sure almost all of my mailart postcards have watercolor in them, my circle series pieces, etc. I’m having lots of fun so far and really enjoying the book.

1.1.11 squares

Since the projects are like little practices for experimenting with watercolors, I had a great idea to do mine on small postcard pieces of paper and mail them out to friends.

Watercolor tip: Heather suggests taping your paper down and I’ve seen a lot of people do this perfectly fine. But, if you want to soak your paper and stretch it, I suggest the following. When I was college our instructor had us buy Homosote board (which you can find at some hardware stores), soak your paper, then staple it right into the board. The staples and paper release from the board easy and you don’t have to worry about wet paper staying taped down. You can use a hair dryer to dry the paper or wait overnight and the paper dries taught.

robayre

Hi, I'm Robyn and I was Hatched from a Kinder Surprise Egg. Graphic Designer by day, Maker of things by night. I have worked as a graphic artist professionally since I was 16 years old. Went on to get my Bachelors of Art from NIU. I like to share my Artwork online at flickr.com/photos/robayre and on my own personal website http://www.robayre.com. I also have an online shop http://www.robayre.etsy.com where you can find more of my "crafty" sorts of things, as well as a random piece of artwork here and there. Oh, and I'm also an occasional contributor to Artomat (artomat.org).

9 thoughts on “water paper paint

  1. Love your watercolour circles and photos, this sounds like a book I need for myself too. I ♥ watercolours already and use it all the time too! :-)

    Happy New year!

  2. I checked out some of the reviews on Amazon and it sounds like it might be a good book for a beginner like me too. :) I’ll have to check it out.

  3. nice!! i always had discussion with my teacher of watercolor, because the masking tape makes a disaster on the paper, i try to keep so clean the paper (im kinda perfectionist when i use watercolors), so i only soak the paper when is necesary even with that, i think he was a nice teacher, recently he had an award for his career and well, im proud to said: yup! he was my teacher :D

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