April 2018 – The Junebug Blog

wreaths

Hello everyone! How are you all? Well, today I have a tutorial! (if you want to see my last one, click here) I have been making little wreaths with initials inside and have been sending some to friends, and I thought you all might like to try and to see how I did it!

I said “place card” in the picture, but the things I am about to show aren’t place cards, but instead of doing one square of paper, you could cut a rectangle and fold it in half and you will have a cute place card! I just wanted to let you know, incase you’re going, “Ummm… those aren’t place cards” (: I hope you enjoy!

1. Floral Place card wreath

Start with a square of watercolor (or any sturdy paper) paper. I cut mine, for this, about the size of a bottle cap, so it’s rather small. You can make it any size or length you want, but for the wreath you want to stay more in the square zone(:

Next, draw a circle inside the square. I used a little round eraser to get a perfect circle shape, so if you have a round object that is a good size, use it!

I like to use a smaller brush. For these paintings I’m using a size 2 brush (photo) and a size 0.

Now, we are going to do flowers, so mix the colors that you wish. To start out I did a Magenta/Reddish-purple color, one of my favorites(:

Now, you start on the flower/rose. Some of you are probably saying, “How?” I shall show you.

Roses are some of my favorite things to paint with watercolor. When you start, you make a little jelly bean shape as the center of your flower, not to big.

Then, add two medium-thick lines top and bottom of the center of the flower. (Remember not to let them touch to much or it will just look like a blob(: )

Then, beside the two medium-thick lines you just made, put two more (not so thick lines) on both sides of those. When you are finished with that, add a few decorative lines. You have a flower! Not to hard, right?

Make a few more flowers around the circle you made, staying around the same size. I lightened my colors as I went around with more red, but you can do whatever you like. I have done all different kinds. If you like blue, mix a medium blue with a teeny bit of grey, It’s also one of my favorite flower colors(: Do you like your results on this?

Next you’re going to write the initial. I am using my Micron tip pen (it’s called a Le Pen) to do it.

I just picked a random letter. Now, If you want a bit less floral, look below for the next one!

2. Floral + Ivy wreath

Start with the your paper again. (Remember, you can use whatever shape you want as long as it’s in the shape category)

Now, paint 2-4 flowers, just like before, depending on how many you want. You can do them wherever you want. I like to paint them across from each other.

Now mix the color of the leaves. I went with a darkish shamrock green. (light green mixed with a bit of medium blue)

Paint the green thinly around the circle, trying not to touch the flowers. Then while the green lines are still wet, take your brush and go outward, creating the leaf shape. (photo)

Do that all the way around or until you like the results. What do you think?

Yay! I really like how this one turned out(: If you want to know how to do the lettering, see below.

Quick detour: Handlettering

Start with a scrap piece of paper.

Grab your tools. You can have and use anything for these little letters. I have a brush pen (Le Plumme II, I believe, which you can get here) with a thin Le Pen side and a brush pen side, There are watercolor brush pens, which are good, one of my favorites, (I wouldn’t recommend using it for this tutorial, though. The tend to have a mind of their own for small letters.) and there are brush markers, which I like.

Now, for hand lettering you widen the downstrokes, or press hard on the side for thickness, and and you lighten and raise the pen up for upstrokes, creating a thin line. (the photo shows the brush pen and the watercolor brush pen) practice this over and over until you’ve gotten the hang of it.

Now, practice down and upstrokes on letters until you get the hang of it.

Now, if you don’t have a brush pen or marker, grab a pen, any kind. Write a normal letter. (It doesn’t have to be cursive. This is good for any font or style.)

It is pretty much the same thing as a brush pen. Widening the downstrokes.

Then, when you widen the downstrokes and fill it in, VIOLA! You just did hand lettering! pretty easy, right? OK, back to art.

3. Full Ivy wreath

This is one of my favorites to do. For the ivy on this one I did a darker green. start on three sides, just like the flowers on the last one.

Continue and go all the way around. Done! That is probably the easiest. I love the way it looks! I did a few wispy lines coming out of the leaves for extra effect. (:

Add your Initial. Done!

4. Berry wreath

Now for the berry wreath, the last one, do the same exact thing like the floral/ivy wreath, just instead of flowers, do dots as berries for a more subtle look.

Finished!

Yay! this was fun! I hope you enjoyed! Comment below which one was your favorite and which one you might make! Thank you for reading!

~thejunebugblog

Hello everyone! It’s been so long! Well, I have missed a few Saturday’s since my last post, but here’s Art Day!

I’ve been doing lots of teeny paintings lately, mainly I’ve been making things out of my paper scraps. I made this little (really little) painting with an initial.

This was also a scrap paper painting. I don’t like to waist any paper, so I do random little pictures like this. (:

I tried a few landscape paintings. This probably could have used a retry, but I just left this one. (:

This is my Uncles house I painted on easter. (It’s kind of funny, I didn’t realize it then, but the lines that were supposed to be off-white are green!)