Watercolour Christmas Card Paintings

 Hello Friends,

It has been a while since I've posted here. I was in my writer's cave for a couple of months - planning (Sept.-Oct.) and writing (Nov.) my latest novel. The title is "Out of Hiding: Children of Philtor" and it will be Book 3 in my Tales of Ellmoria inspirational fantasy series. If you are interested in the progress of my books, please follow me on my Facebook page, Teresa M. Arsenault, Author. 

Recently I've been doing some little watercolour (WC) paintings for Christmas cards. Most were done on Arches 100% cotton WC paper and with Winsor & Newton WC paints. One was done with Canson (wood pulp) WC paper and a cheaper set of paints. Can you guess which one? I think you can easily see the difference. Good paint is important for WC. Good paper is absolutely essential. 

I started by doing these little paintings one at a time. For my next attempt, I taped two cut pieces to a board. Then I taped one piece to a board, separating it by a piece of painter's tape down the middle.

Here are a couple close-ups. I used Recollections 110 lb. coloured cardstock paper for the card bases. I got it at Michael's and I highly recommend this paper for card bases. It is super thick and handles creasing extremely well. I've gotten cardstock in the past that cracked in the spine. This bends and creases beautifully. It was also affordable and the pack I got has four different shades of green.

Finally, I decided to speed up the process by taping a full sheet (10x14) of Arches 100% cotton paper to a large board and taping it into six sections. The background is my first attempt at painting the Northern Lights. Here are the finished paintings before I cut them apart.

I hope you enjoyed this post and/or found something helpful. 

Hugs & smiles,

Teresa