Digging out my watercolours

I’ve been experimenting. It’s been a long time since I used my watercolours, but I’ve been mesmerised by the many tutorials and reels on Instagram, as well as the fab artwork they seemingly easily produce. So rather than keep watching and wondering what if, I had a go.

I was quickly reminded that it’s been a long time since I used my watercolours, and as you can see they’ve probably had minimal use previously.

But I figured it couldn’t be hugely different to other crafts, even though a paintbrush is perhaps a less familiar tool. So I thought I’d start with something easy and explorative, as well as useful - what colours are what, and how they were different on wet and dry paper. It’s the wet paper approach that had really caught my eye, and it worked well in real life too.

Where I think it really works is with the doodled flowers, which are in pen rather than with a brush. Again they’re rough and unplanned but they also show that that’s ok, and I think this is something that I’ll be exploring further.

It was definitely worth watching some ‘how to’ videos before I started, both for inspiration and practical tips. The most practical tip was to have two water jars, one for cleaning brushes and allowed to get dirty, and the other for applying on the paper and paints. And it’s working. The other tip related to this which is probably even more important is to keep your mug of tea in a separate part of the desk so you don’t dip your brush in that by mistake!

Eminently sensible.

Not feeling quite brave enough yet to go freehand, but wanting to do more than squiggles. I decided my next step would be some ‘watercolour colouring in’ and so I found a design which could be printed. Of course this meant it was on usual printer paper, rather than the paper I’d used for the colour test in my sketchbook, and so it performed differently.

But it worked well enough for what I wanted. The blending is a bit rough, the colours are over the lines - but it was great fun, worthwhile and part of my learning journey. Now I just need to be braver and try something freehand - though I’ll be watching a few more of those tutorials before I start.

I’ve a feeling I’ve a few more afternoons ahead of me experimenting and refining (or picking up) some technique!

Post Comment Love 4-6 November

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’re here.

It’s been pretty wet here this week, and yesterday we had our heating on for the first time which I think must be our all time record. Up until now it’s been mild enough to not need heating, which is good news as like many people we’re much more conscious of the energy we use.

The weather has meant delays for the decorators finishing the exterior of our house, but we’re really pleased with the work they’ve done so far. Our house looks so much fresher, and it’s amazing what a fresh lick of paint can do.

This week I’m linking my garden in October, and I’m also including a photo of my hydrangeas here. They look so delicate and fragile but are standing up so well to the driving rain, so there’s more about them than you think!

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My garden in October

In September our garden was still recovering from the drought, this month it’s pretty much there and has discovered it can grow weeds. And lots of them, more than we’ve ever known. I’m sure that’s related to the hot, dry summer but what an unwanted outcome! But - thankfully - it’s not just been weeds. The olive tree which is in a pot had not been itself, but as you can see the leaves are now dark green and glossy again. It’s still bald on one side where it’s been shaded by the fence, but that’s ok as it’s unlikely to get a 360 degree site.

The ferns and the leaves of the Lords and Ladies (the darker green leaves) are looking verdant and fresh, and it’s likely that the unseasonably warm weather this month is helping with that.

There’s been time for some jobs too. The gabion baskets which we use as a log store had been used as a launch pad by the local wildlife as a launchpad to jump the fence and so I’ve used the remaining ‘whirly wires’ to reinforce the top. In the other gabion baskets they’re used on the joins to provide extra strength, so in theory they should do the same for this. They also look pretty good too.

While the weather has been warm, the latter part of the month was pretty wet too. Our neighbourhood has been a bit of scaffolding city, with us and both our next door neighbours, and the neighbours two doors down cladding the exteriors of our houses with scaffolding. Our conservatory provides a view of our neighbour’s scaffolding at the back, though it was the vibrant red leaves which had blown onto the roof which really caught my eye.

The agapanthus, just outside the conservatory windows are also showing signs of autumn. The flower heads remain, and some of the seed pods - but look at the colours and its sculptural elegance.

During the month I bought and potted up some winter bedding. A tray of violas and cyclamen cost just under twenty pounds, and have brought such a pop of colour to the garden. The violas were a large enough pot to be torn into two, so doubling where I planted them. When potting them up, I planted them in and around the yellow summer bedding which was continuing to flower. When that’s finished flowering I can remove them from the pots, though I’m hoping they’ve a good few weeks in them yet - we’ll see.

The other flower heads that I’m leaving on the plant is the hydrangeas. In September I told you they’d turned cream again, this month they’re brown and still as glorious.

Which brings us back to the weeds. They’re in places where we’ve not had anywhere near the number of weeds before that we have now. I’m convinced the number is related to the drought, but I’m not sure how. I’ve noticed that it’s not just our garden - thankfully! And once I’d spotted that other gardens, and public areas are also covered, I started to relax. A little. They’re easy to pull up of course, but I need to get to them before they’re too comfortable and before they seed. And in dry weather!

The photo above isn’t the best quality, but I’m including it here as it was taken towards the end of the month and the hardy fuchsia is still in flower and enjoying the wind (hence the blurring). I think they’re probably still flowering in more normal years, but this year we didn’t see much of them over the summer, so it’s good to see them know.

What is noticeable though is the deepness of colours, the dogwoods are so bright and vibrant - and again that’s good to see. It’s hard to believe that these dogwoods were planted ten years ago as bare root plants. That’s the thing about gardening, it’s always changing and developing, and growing!