A Watercolor Exercise For Your Sketchbook : Color-Blocking
When I’m having a touch of artist’s block, or feeling a little anxious or stuck (anyone else get a little blue in the cloudy winter months?), I try to simplify. I pull out three of my faithful Daniel Smith watercolors, one medium paintbrush, a sketchbook, and sit in the quiet at my desk and do this exercise. I thought I would share for anyone who needs a creative jumpstart, a mental break, or just a quick way to practice watercolors if you’re new to the medium.
What you’ll need:
a blank (or almost blank) sketchbook page - mine has a red swatch from another painting session :)
a small/medium paintbrush
watercolors (use a limited palette of 3-4 colors; I used Daniel Smith’s Pyrrol Scarlet, Hansa Yellow Light, and French Ultramarine)
jar for water
palette for mixing
cloth for dabbing your brush
Start with creating a simple grid using one color. The idea here is to loosen up and have fun, so don’t worry about making your lines straight or your squares even. Just go for a basic grid.
Begin filling each square with a color - any color, any tint, any shade. Just follow your whim and intuition. If you’re new to watercolor, the important thing to remember is to keep the area wet as you’re working, so that you can keep the pigment workable until you fill the entire square. Wait until that square dries before you paint a square next to it, to avoid your squares bleeding into each other (unless, of course, you’re okay with that!)
Continue filling each square, letting your intuition inform your color choices. I often pick one overall color family, to help the decision-making easier and avoid overthinking - in this case greens and blue-greens. Then I like to mix in pops of complimentary shades (today it was scarlet-pinks) and colors I just like (cool blues).
And that’s it! It might seem stupid simple - but sometimes we need that, don’t we? There’s something about getting down to the fundamentals, the feeling of just pushing a color around on paper that gives me the little thrill I need! Nothing decompresses my mind and gets me excited to be creative like this simple little exercise.
I hope you enjoy! If you give this a try, I would love for you to share it! Tag me on Instagram @abi_bydesign :)
