Watercolour doodles

There is nothing better on a gloomy January morning than a little splishy sploshy colour and some scribbling paintbrush and pen adventures.. The pictures below come from resources I keep, or from Pinterest, or from old sketchbooks. Thankyou internet for showing us all these lovely things. Nobody in our groups will copy anything and you have spread a little happiness today .

We all have some pans of old watercolour paints, even dried out tubes can be revived with a little water. Gouache will do just as nicely, and has a slightly more opaque look. Keep your first painted shapes light and watery, adding more colour with a second brushstroke or let the paint bleed into itself. You could also add a sprinkle of salt to add texture.

Using a black fine liner pen, or even pen and ink draw into your shapes to bring them to life. The beauty is that less is more, use the contrast of the paint and ink to act like a simple print . Very simple, but very effective. And who knows what lurks inside the paint waiting to come to life?!!

Keep a few bits of your picture with no ink, to recede into the background and create depth.

Step by Step tiny town. I really enjoyed creating this picture with its winding river and little block houses. Simple trees and patterns turn into a patchwork village .

Watercolour Gallery By you this week.

An incredible range of styles and ideas from the seaside to birds to Turner Seas and Butterflies.

Many of you I know, have stayed in hospital at times, or recovered from different forms of physical illness, depression and mental health issues. The gentle art of Watercolour, loose drawing and letting yourself have no end point to your art, is a very freeing and easy technique. The combination of rich colours and happy accidents is worth re- exploring from your armchair x