Painterly Days

I'm definitely still having fun with the Painterly Days watercoloring book.  I used lots of water on the background above, and dropped color into it, wet on wet style.

On this next page, I splashed wet color all over the page not paying attention to where the pattern was.  After it was dry I painted some of the areas again.  This time I used Twinkling H20's (metallic watercolor).

Next time I'll try and remember to take a picture between the layers.

More on Coloring Books

I'm enjoying the watercolor coloring book so much that I gave Alisa Burke's free coloring pages a try.  She has a wonderful idea (and video) about watercoloring outside of the lines as a "freer" way of using coloring books.  Right up my alley.  She also suggests that you can do this on copier paper, so I gave it a try.  Fabulous fun.

Alisa's rubber cement resist

Painterly Days Watercoloring Book

When Schiffer Publishing offered me a copy of a Painterly Days, I decided it was finally time to try out the coloring craze.  The watercolor part of this is what pushed me over the edge.  Coloring is not my favorite pastime; I find it too slow and too finicky.  But slopping paint around a large area appeals to me, so I thought I'd give it a try.  The books are 9" x 12".

I think I'm hooked!  I'm not an accomplished watercolor painter, but I love the surprise factor of the medium.  Having all the designs pre-drawn allows me to focus on the watercolor, and I'm not worried about ruining a drawing that I've spent hours on.  So I'm having great fun and getting lots of practice mastering a medium that some say is difficult.

There are three versions of the book:  Patterns, Woodlands, and Flowers.  Each book contains 25 double sided patterns, printed in grey on watercolor paper.  The  paper in the book is pretty good if not great; as long as you use lots of water and don't scrub the paper too much there is no issue with pilling. For $25US per book it is good value.  

One of the nice little details that make this book a treat to use is the fold-out front and back covers.  If you wrap these around the pages before and after the page that you're painting, the rest stay nice and clean.

There are also painting and artist tips in the book to go with each page.  As an added bonus, the author, Kristy Rice, has made some You-Tube videos which can function as a watercolor class to go with the book.  I found her instruction very useful and inspiring.

I would definitely recommend this book!