My youngest child Berit married her sweetheart Brian earlier this month. I gifted them with a watercolor portrait. Brian and Berit, ink and watercolor on 140 lb cold press watercolor paper, 9x12 This is the reference photo. Here's a very early stage of the painting. And me with the finished, framed piece:)
When I create a watercolor painting, sometimes the paper buckles and warps, depending how much water I use in the painting. This post shows how I flatten those warped paintings. Here you can see how my small paintings warped. Start with a flat board or surface. I'm using a clean piece of paper, too, because … Continue reading Flattening watercolor paintings 6.16.2022
Untitled, watercolor, 11x15 on Arches paper
A couple summers ago, I took a watercolor class where I learned that I could make a variety of colors by mixing only primary colors together: blue, yellow and red. All my long life, I've used pre-mixed colors in my paintings, and even though I mixed those premixed colors together to get other colors, it … Continue reading watercolor charts 2.6.2020
As part of my ongoing 2020 goal to finish all my WIP (work in process) paintings, I completed my oldest WIP! Yay me! I started this painting back in 2016. Before I had any watercolor instruction. The paper I used isn't even watercolor paper. And the paper's been taped to the board for so long … Continue reading elly and buckley watercolor 1.30.2020
Over the past few years, I've started to make a list of art goals every January. One of my goals for 2020 is to finish all my paintings that are in progress. I'd like to finish these before I start any new paintings, but that remains to be seen:) Here are three little watercolors I … Continue reading watercolor leaves 1.16.2020
Here's a painting a finished last month. It's a watercolor portrait of my second child, daughter Elly Anne. I start with a photo that includes a lot of shadow, or light and dark, then print it out in b/w and color to 8.5x11. I use the b/w copy to trace the image and shadow areas … Continue reading elly, watercolored 8.15.2019
Here's another post about my 100-day self portrait project. I've completed the 100 days, so this post includes self portraits 81 through 100. You can find the first 80 in these posts: #1-16: https://rachelimsland.com/2019/04/18/1-16-self-portraits-4-18-2019/ # 17-34: https://rachelimsland.com/2019/05/09/17-self-portraits-5-9-2019/ # 35-50: https://rachelimsland.com/2019/05/23/35-50-self-portraits-5-23-2019/ # 51-65: https://rachelimsland.com/2019/06/06/51-65-self-portraits-6-6-2019/ #66-80: https://rachelimsland.com/2019/06/20/66-80-self-portraits-6-20-2019/ You can also find them all on my Instagram stories. … Continue reading #81-100 self portraits 7.11.2019
I've completed 16 days of my 100 day self-portrait project. I'm posting all of these self portraits to my Instagram stories, but I know not all of you are Instagram subscribers, so I'll post them here, too, in groups. Here are the first 16 days! 1. turquoise colored pencil2. single continuous line3. blind contour4. pressed … Continue reading #1-16 self portraits 4.18.2019
I meet with a friend each month and we paint together. After taking a watercolor class last summer, we agreed that we wanted to continue painting. We weren't sure that we'd have the self motivation to paint on our own, so this monthly co-painting session keeps us painting! These three paintings are all from those … Continue reading recent watercolors 4.11.2019
Rachel Imsland, Artist 