Today we're embracing some stereotypes and doing a watercolour flower. Not quite the
way you think, though! Hello and welcome back to Jenna Gets Creative.
A couple of channels I'm in contact with often have recently done the #YellowFlowerArtChallenge
started by Dena Tollefson and thanks to seeing those videos I discovered a great channel
I hadn't been aware of before. Dena said the challenge is still open, so here I go, creating
a floral piece to offer up as my contribution. The #YellowFlowerArtChallenge calls artists
to create a piece involving a flower, the colour yellow, or both. At first I considered
actually doing a yellow flower, but I didn't want to do a sunflower and feel like I was
copying Dena's under painting from her video and I wasn't inspired by any of the other
yellow flowers I was looking at, so I decided to return to this water lily in my collection
of reference photos that I haven't painted yet. It's actually already sketched out on
the other half of the sheet where I painted the side view water lily when I tested my
Dr Ph Martin's Bombay India Inks, uh, wow, two years ago this month! And I never got
around to doing the other flower. Anyway, I sketched it out fresh on a new piece
of paper because I wanted to change the composition and I honestly don't remember what paper that
old one is on anymore. Did I use watercolour paper? Mix media? I don't know! Today's piece
is being done on a piece of Legion Stonehenge coldpress paper. I have a small block from
an old subscription box, I want to say the November 2018 Premium SketchBox because that
was my last one when I tried the subscription out and it was a watercolour box, but somewhere
in between then and now I tried a really messy piece on that block and my tape failed me
and I spoiled the edges of the next sheet. That's what I'm using today, I didn't mind
trimming a good 3 or 4 inches off the end to square it off. I actually ended up using
the trimmed edge anyway because I needed a place to test what my washes looked like before
I painted with them. The starting sketch was done using a Prismacolor
Col-erase pencil in scarlet for the flower and green for the lily pad, and I love using
these under watercolour and ink media because they do blend and soften a bit, but I also
love the fact that I can pick a colour that's more suited to the piece I'm doing and there's
no graphite shine, so if any of the sketch is visible at the end you're not really going
to notice it. I'm going for a more "this is obviously a painting a not a photo" look,
so I'm not worried about the possibility that the sketch might be visible at the end, but
I don't think you'll notice it once I start going in with darker layers anyway.
The watercolour I'm using in today's video is actually watercolour markers. Not simply
water based markers but watercolour paint in marker form. I like to start with diluted
washes, so what I'll do is I'll scribble on the sides of one of my little dollar store
ceramic ramekins and add water, make my lightest wash and use it, then start scribbling more
ink onto the sides and mixing it into the wash to get darker and darker colours. For
a lot of this footage you're just going to see me working with those washes. I made a
blue one for the water by mixing a couple of my blue markers with payne's grey and a
little yellow, and as I darkened it up I did also add a touch of black. The green for the
lily pad was the same thing without the grey and black and heavier on the yellows. The
pink for the flower was my two pinks and my red.
I do have the former full range of Karin Brushmarker PRO liquid watercolour markers, before they
introduced their neons, but I didn't use those at all in this piece, I only used my Winsor
& Newton and Faber-Castell Albretch Dürer pens, and I don't have many. I have two of
the Faber-Castells from a ScrawlrBox last year, Phthalo Blue and Cadmium Yellow, and
those both claim to be completely lightfast. For the Winsor & Newtons, I got the shade
Pale Rose from that November 2018 SketchBox and that's what got me interested in watercolour
markers. From there I just wanted to pick out some primaries, but I wanted warm and
cool colours for the typical Red-Blue-Yellow system AND I wanted CMYK, and I splurged for
a couple convenience shades, so my other 11 markers are: black, Payne's grey, yellow ochre,
lemon yellow hue, cadmium yellow hue, cadmium red hue, permanent rose, cerulean blue hue,
phthalo blue red shade, phthalo blue green shade, and turquoise. All of the Winsor & Newton
watercolour markers are rated permanence A, whatever that means, but only some of them
list ASTM lightfastness ratings on the barrels, so I'm not sure if that means the others aren't
lightfast or if they just hadn't been tested yet. Either way, with those 12 colours, yes
I know the Fabers make 14 but they're duplicate shades, I am able to mix any colour I need.
It's very tempting to buy the full range and have a bunch of convenience shades, but for
the amount of time I actually spend working with these it's not worth it. The Karins aren't
either, but they don't have smaller sets with a colour selection built this way, the open
stock is overpriced, and I got a great deal last easter during Marker Universe's easter
egg hunt event, so… That's why my #ColorsoftheMonth pieces are usually those. I will use them,
gosh darnit! You're going to start seeing my pull out some
other techniques with these and then adding other media really soon here if I haven't
already. I never really know how these scripted voice overs are going to line up with the
footage once I speed it up. I'll explain those techniques in a minute, but first let me tell
you about the giveaways I have coming up! The first is the "let's get Jenna monetized"
giveaway. Once this channel has the watch hours I need to apply for monetization, I'll
open entries for this contest, and you'll be entering to win your choice of three possible
prize packs. All prize options include a small original artwork and the options are the collection
of art supplies I've been setting aside for a giveaway, the duplicate fantasy genre books
on my shelf, or a custom Book Depository order placed on your behalf.
The second giveaway coming up is the "let's get Jenna to 2k" giveaway, and you guys are
going to make that one happen soon, I can tell! I've seen a bit of a surge starting
in the last week. Hopefully I'm not jinxing it now. That giveaway will open once this
channel has hit and held onto 2,000 subscribers for a few days just to make sure you guys
aren't running away again, and that'll be for your choice of an Amazon gift card or
a Book Depository order. More details for both giveaways are in the
description box down below. For both you do need to be at least 14 years of age and subscribed
to this channel. With the exception of the Amazon giftcard which will be delivered through
email, winners will also need to be willing and able to provide a mailing address to receive
your prize, and I'll get that from you privately if you're selected as the winner.
Back to the painting! As I needed to get darker and darker with
my colours I started lifting the paint directly out of the marker nib with a paint brush and
applying it to the paper that way. Sometimes I used a very wet brush to get more of a wash
or applied water on top of it right away to blend it out, and sometimes I lifted and applied
it at dry as possible for maximum colour saturation and for texture. When it came time to add
the yellow tips I went straight in with the fine nib of the marker and applied that directly
to the page. I don't do that often with watercolour markers because they will absolutely still
start eating the paper if you attempt anything fancy, and if you want to water it down and
blend it out you need to get to it right away while the paint is wet, so doing large areas
doesn't work out so well. Even with the best watercolour markers that are almost completely
water soluble when you act quickly, if you're too slow or work too big at once, you're going
to have ghosting from the original marker nib strokes. If that's a technique you're
going for, great! If that's your first layer and you're going to build up a lot on top
of it, probably not a problem. If it's your 10th layer on a highly detailed piece and
everything below it is also water soluble marker, you're going to make a mess.
I don't look at watercolour markers as a replacement for traditional watercolour at all. I look
at them as an interesting in-between medium for artists who are familiar and comfortable
with ink but also like the properties that make watercolour unique. This achieves that
transparent look of watercolour, it reactivates, and the finished result is softer than ink,
but it lets you work in ink washes and it gives you the option of the marker nibs for
bolder things as well. Am I ever going to go all out and get a full set of one of these
brands of markers? Probably not unless I come into a lot of money and don't mind splurging
on supplies I don't use often enough. If I were to happen to gifted with more of them
I'd be happy with either brand, Winsor & Newton or Faber-Castell, but I would have to give
the edge to the Fabers because their line is all lightfast tested and labelled and the
shades all match up exactly with their other lines across all their mediums. 107 Cadmium
Yellow in this marker looks the same as 107 Cadmium Yellow in watercolour pencil form,
looks the same as 107 Cadmium Yellow in Polychromos pencils, looks the same as 107 Cadmium Yellow
in soft pastels, etc. Mix media artist's dream! Speaking of mix media, when I was done with
taking paint directly off the marker nibs I darkened up the red centre and added a little
more shadow and grit to the petals with some coloured pencils. I used my Faber-Castell
Goldfaber pencils because I prefer to save the Polychromos pencils for purely coloured
pencil work, but again, shades in Faber-Castell products match across mediums and lines, so
same difference. When I peeled away my tape it had let some of the blue of the water escape
a bit in the corners, which is always a nuisance when that happens. I really need to switch
tape brands, this stuff is too cheap, but it's not the end of the world! This is already
a mix media piece and it's already not a super tidy style, so I broke out some white acrylic
to paint over the white border and I let the inner edge be messy. I used my Sennelier Abstract
acrylic in titanium white purely because it's the last acrylic white I used so it was at
the top of the pile in my box of paint tubes and bottles, but it is a nice acrylic.
And there's the final piece! Stalk me on Instagram or check the Art Addicts Alliance Discord
server for a cute picture of my cat posing with it. If you're looking for more to watch
I've got some suggestions up on the left side of the screen now. Don't forget to like, comment,
maybe even subscribe, and if you like living life creatively, whatever that means to you,
I'd love to have you along for the ride. Bye guys!