How to Use Watercolor Pencils

Bonnie is going to show you how she used the new Kelly Creates Watercolor Paradise Pencils and Kelly Creates Water Brush to color and paint a flag! Show your patriotism by painting your country’s flag and add some lettering too from your national anthem.

Kelly Creates Supplies: Watercolor Paper pad, Watercolor Paradise Pencils, Water Brush, Deluxe Lettering Kit, Black Fineliner 01

With Canada Day here, I decided to paint our national flag.  I started with a simple hand sketched maple leaf and the words ‘Oh, Canada’ using the Kelly Creates Drawing Pencil and ruler from the Deluxe Lettering kit.

I wanted to create a looser design for this piece and a ‘sketched’ appearance.

Once I had the basic outline, I used the 01 Kelly Creates Black Fineliner to trace over the pencil lines with two strokes slightly over lapping. The double line gives you freedom from having perfect lines.

For the lettering, I did the first outline then a wider one on the downstroke side and repeated those for each letter with double lines. Again I was trying for a bit of a relaxed block letter style.

After erasing the pencil lines, I came in with the Kelly Creates ‘Coral’ Watercolor Paradise Pencil. These are water soluble coloring pencils that blend beautifully with water to create watercolor paint on watercolor paper. There are 12 colours: 

I coloured the contour of the leaf, the tops of the letters and the outer edges of the vertical lines on the flag. The Kelly Creates Paradise Pencils give you a lot of control over where exactly you are applying colour.

Using the Kelly Creates Water Brush filled with clear water, I wet the Coral pencil colour and started to blend into a gradient. For the lettering, I blended downwards to create an ombre from dark on top to light on the bottom. The Kelly Creates Water Brush has an extra fine tip that is wonderful for painting details. 

Once it is dry, you can come back and add more pencil colouring if you’d like a darker shade, but be careful not to overwork the area as this may cause the paper to start to pill. NOTE: Do not use these pencils on wet paper.

For some variation, you can add some splatters to the overall piece. Try this on a piece of scrap first, so you can experiment and see how much colour or water is needed.

You will need to scribble some colour down on the Kelly Creates palette, piece of plastic or glass works. To do this, simply colour a small area.

Add water to the colour by squeezing your water brush so that drops land onto your colour. Swish and mix the colour and water, and then load your water brush with this paint. Now using your opposite hand, stretch out your index finger and tap the brush across that finger, allowing the paint to splatter droplets onto the page.

Allow to dry and add more splatter if desired. I also painted light drop shadow lines on the letters to give them more dimension.

I’ve designed this PDF for you to download, print and practice if you would like to paint the Canadian flag like mine. You can also use it to transfer the same image onto your watercolor paper.

Click HERE to download or click the image below.

My suggestion is to print the PDF and then trace it onto your watercolour paper so that you can then outline using the fineliners as they are waterproof. Chances are if you print directly onto your paper, the printer ink will smear once you add water.

Have fun with your flags! Share with us online using the hashtag #kellycreates or in our Facebook group Kelly Creates Art & Calligraphy. 

For more inspirational art and lettering, follow Bonnie on Instagram @diamondandwillow and Facebook “Diamond and Willow Artworks.”

Watch this video demo of all the Kelly Creates Paradise Watercolor Pencils:

To shop the supplies Bonnie used, click on the affiliate links below or visit http://www.KellyCreatesStore.com 

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