Learning Something New: My Mini Watercolor Kit

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw a quick snap of my mini watercolor kit the other day. 

Painting is something that has always mystified me – watching painters do their creating is like watching magic happen before my eyes. I just don’t understand how these things are made. I suppose some folks feel that way about knitting?

I’ve always wanted to try painting but never felt like it was the right time but the other day I just jumped on it, told myself to stop being afraid – what’s the worst that could happen? You spend a few bucks on supplies that don’t get used right away (and we call that a stash in knitting, what’s it called in other mediums?).

I took some inspiration from an extremely talented artist I discovered on IG – Heidi Annalise – and made my kit with an old Altoids tin I’d previously been using to store beads (for my Olive Garden shawl). I bought some empty half pans, 6″x8″ watercolor board, 3 paintbrushes and 4 colors of paint – black, red, yellow and blue (because this was all getting a wee bit expensive and I know from my elementary art classes that with these colors I can, with enough patience, make all the other colors). 

My little water container is actually a small jam jar. I cut down the watercolor board to 2″x 3″ sizes to fit nicely in the lid of my tin and hold them in place with a little binder clip so they don’t get blown away.

It’s been so fun to learn something new and with just a little 2″x 3″ card to paint, it’s not so intimidating. I find it very approachable and have been painting a few cards a day, trying out different techniques, color combos and just generally learning how to put brush to water to paint to paper (not always in that order).

Here are all of my finished cards in order of creation – first on the upper left, most recent in the lower right. I don’t really want to show you the ones I consider inferior BUT I do want to practice what I preach, embrace learning something new and share my process.

What have you always wanted to learn but shied away from? Have you bit the bullet on anything you were interested in? How did that turn out? Please share these stories of success and learning!

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