Come join me and Maria from Art Toolkit for a live demo on Tuesday, December 6th at 1pm Pacific to create colorful cards for the holidays! The demo will be HERE on YouTube and we’ll save the recording so you can watch it later.

Bring your 4” x 6” watercolor paper, watercolors, a pencil, brush pen, or parallel pen, and your favorite paintbrush.⁠ We hope you can join us!

Say hello to my new setup for World Watercolor Month — on the left!

I had been using this as a mixing palette, and decided to convert it for July. By the way, if you haven’t heard about World Watercolor Month, it’s a challenge from Charlie O’ Shields to watercolor each day in July and raise money for art education. Last year I focused on painting trees, but this year I just wanted to have fun and play. Find out more about WWM here.

I’m still using my trusty old Folio too. I’ve had it set up this way for about a year now with some minor tweaks, and I love it! The larger pans are great for big brushes. It has 17 colors, which is a lot for me. I’ve used it so long it’s like second nature — I don’t have to think about where everything is or what I’m going to mix.

But for World Water Month I decided to dig out all the tubes of color that I have stuffed in a drawer and play! Some of these are really old — we’re talking 10-15 years old! But they’re still going strong.

Here it is in action — I made a fun little popsicle card for my nephew and turned it into a tutorial:

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A post shared by Lisa Spangler (@sideoats)

Here are the 28 (!) colors in the new setup clockwise from upper left:

DS = Daniel Smith, WN = Winsor & Newton, S = Schmincke, H = Holbein

• Top row: DS Hansa yellow light, WN Winsor yellow (PY154), DS New Gamboge, WN Yellow ochre, DS Quinacridone gold, S transparent orange, DS organic vermillion, DS pyrrol red (PR254), DS quinacridone rose, DS permanent alizarin crimson
• Right side: DS deep scarlet, DS piemontite genuine, DS lunar earth, DS transparent red oxide, DS Van Dyck brown
• Bottom row: DS indigo, WN indigo (they’re so different!), DS indigo, H ultramarine blue light, DS phthalo blue red shade, DS cobalt blue, DS cerulean, DS phthalo blue green shade, DV colbalt turquoise, DS cascade green
• Left side: DS carbazole violet (PV23), WN smalt, DV lavender, DS Chinese white

Here are the colors in my original Folio, just in case you were wondering:

• Top row: DS Hansa yellow light, DS Hansa yellow medium , WN Cadmium yellow pale, DS quinacridone gold, DS raw sienna, DS transparent red oxide, DS phthalo green (blue shade)
• Middle row: DS phthalo blue (green shade), DS phthalo blue (red shade), WN cobalt turquoise, H cerulean blue, DS cobalt blue, WN French ultramarine blue
• Bottom row: WN permanent rose, DS quinacridone coral, DS organic vermillion, WN Indian red, DS indanthrone blue

Labeling Your ATK Pans

I’ve been asked a few times about how I keep track of my pans, and here’s what I came up with: Avery labels in size 5414! For the mini ATK pans I just cut them in half.

I used to write on the bottoms of the pan with a sharpie, but somehow it always came off. Labels to the rescue! I still write on them with a sharpie or a waterproof pen.

I keep the labeled pans in a butcher tray/mixing palette that I don’t use much anymore. If you’d like to get fancy, try a magnetic sheet and pocket system meant for craft die storage.

Links

If you’d like to set up a Folio palette like this you’ll need:

• 2 XL mixing pans
• 28 mini pans
• and a Folio palette of course!

Art Toolkit gave me a code to share with you — use code LISAFAN10 for 10% off your purchase! :)

Happy painting!

Workshop participants sketched the endemic Texas Coneflower (Rudbeckia Texana), an uncommon wildflower with native populations in Texas and Louisiana found at Nash Prairie. ⁠

I shared my go-to techniques for sketching wildflowers during the workshop and I wanted to share them here so that you can use them to get to know wildflowers in your area, wherever you are!

Color Spots & Peeking Contour Drawings

We started out by making color spots to explore the colors in the Texas Coneflower — it’s amazing how many colors you can find when you stop and look closely. If I’m limited on time or a subject is too overwhelming, I’ll often just stop at making color spots.

Next, we did “peeking contour drawings” — this is a contour drawing where you occasionally peek at the paper, adding little details at the end to bring the sketch to life.

Everyone had so much fun with this!⁠

Bringing It All Together

After we warmed up with color spots and contour drawings we brought it all together with a sketch.

Student Work

It’s so cool to see how everyone’s Texas Coneflower sketches came out, each unique. Click on a photo to see it larger.

What a fantastic day! Thanks to The Nature Conservancy for protecting this special place and to The Native Prairies Association of Texas for hosting the workshops.

Note: this post was originally posted HERE on my new website! I’m slowly adding content over there and I’d love it if you came and joined me!

Art Toolkit Coupon Code

Use code LISAFAN10 for 10% off your purchase of an ArtToolkit, palette, or mixing pans.

Full disclosure: I’m a Brand Ambassador for Art Toolkit and I’ll receive a small commission at no charge to you if you use the code — thank you so much for your support. I’ve been using these palettes since 2018 and I truly love them.

This is the Giving Sunflower digital download and I printed it on kraft paper and then had some therapeutic coloring time — something about coloring is so relaxing.

I challenged myself to use 3 primaries and 2 purples — color theory y’all! I used Prismacolor canary yellow, process red, and true blue plus grayed lavender and black grape. It was cool to see the colors mixing on the paper.

Also! If you’re looking for sunflower coloring tips, my friend Sandy did a whole week on sunflowers — check them out HERE!

And a printer tip: my printer can get super finicky about thicker cardstock, so I printed the sunflowers out on regular printer paper, then taped some kraft paper to it and ran it through again. Voila!

Thanks so much for doing this, Hero Arts! Let’s hope this war ends soon. My thoughts and prayers to the Ukrainian people. — xoxo Lisa

I’m super excited to be teaching a workshop on Exploring the Desert over at Art Toolkit on Saturday March 26, 10am-12:15pm Pacific and I’d love it if you joined me!

Come join Lisa as we explore the desert—with pretzels, pocketknives, and paints! Put on your sun hats and pack your salty snacks as we head out on a virtual field trip to Joshua Tree, Saguaro, and Big Bend National Parks. We’ll stop along the way to talk about mixing colors for these unique places as we build a desert palette and explore techniques for creating texture as we paint a cactus and a mini landscape.

All levels welcome.

Sign up HERE.

Hope to see you there! — Lisa

Hi friends! I’m super excited to share that I’ll be doing a live demo this Thursday, February 10th with Maria from Art Toolkit!

Bring your pink and red watercolors and join Maria and me as we paint postcards for Valentine’s Day and nerd out over pigments!

2:00 central / noon Pacific, live HERE on YouTube, or catch it on the replay at the same link.

Here are the colors I’ll be using:

From left to right: Daniel Smith Quinacridone Rose, Quinacridone Magenta, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Coral, Pyrrol Scarlet, Organic Vermillion, and Holbein Shell Pink in my Art Toolkit Pocket Palette.

Don’t have watercolor postcards? No problem! Just trim some watercolor paper to 4×6″. I got fancy on this one and used a Pilot Parallel pen to add some faux calligraphy! :)

Hope to see you there! — xoxo Lisa

I made this one for J today:

I used the Abstract Sunset die to cut out that background — and I swear it just lined up that way! LOVE how it turned out! Doesn’t it just remind you of desert mountains at sunset? YES!

The message is from the Besties set and I cut that sun with the Essential Circles dies. And that was that!

Supplies

Note that these are my affiliate links so if you make a purchase by clicking the link below I’ll receive a small commission at no charge to you — thank you!

Abstract Sunset, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Essential Circles, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Besties by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps

Indanthrone Blue, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

Naples Yellow, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

Organic Vermilion, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

Juniper Mist, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Hope your year is off to a great start! — xoxo Lisa

I used a full sheet of 9×12″ watercolor paper and lightly drew lines with a pencil to mark them at 4.5″ x 6″ so that I could have 4 areas to work on. I used Stonehenge cold press aqua for this but any watercolor paper will do — it’s just for practice and FUN!

Just have to say that I love that you can get 4 cards out of one sheet this way!

Then I got out my Essential Rectangles dies so that I could easily trim the background panels to fit on a card — it also let me crop out some parts I didn’t quite like!

Then it was just a matter of adding the thank you sentiments.

Here’s a closer look at the cards, starting with my favorite winter floral themed one:

This one has the thanks heat embossed with brass powder — I think it looks pretty classy!

One note — to get that lovely peachy tone I mixed Daniel Smith organic vermillion with raw sienna and a touch of quinacridone rose — just love this color! I really struggled with it when I first started out watercoloring.

Next up, a Big Scripty thanks!

That Daniel Smith cerulean blue mixed with neutral tint really shines here — love all that granulation!

Last but not least, some pines with a window:

The sentiment is actually added on the inside of the card for a fun detail:

I thought about adding some sequins or other embellishments to these but in the end I decided to keep ’em clean and simple.

So which is your favorite? I’d love to hear!

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.

Supplies

Note that these are my affiliate links so if you make a purchase by clicking the link below I’ll receive a small commission at no charge to you — thank you!

Big Scripty Thank You by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Essential Rectangles, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Modern Succulents by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

Totally Random Sayings Vol. 3 by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

Quinacridone Rose, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

VersaFine Reinker, Onyx Black

Cobalt Turquoise, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 15ml Tubes

Raw Sienna, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

Organic Vermilion, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

Neutral Tint, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

Cerulean Blue, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

Patina Technique, Hero Arts Kits

Before I go I just wanted to add a big note of THANKS to all of YOU for all of your kind comments this year — they really do mean the world to me! — xoxo, Lisa

So when we were planning the Ellen Hutson 12 Tags of Christmas this year I HAD to pick “Let It Snow” as my carol! Cue Ella Fitzgerald and join me over there for more!

And if you’re in need of some snowy supplies, find ’em down below!

Prizes + Challenge!

Play along with us this year and you can win a $100 shopping spree at EllenHutson.com! Yay!

And that’s not all, you’ll be automatically entered into a drawing for one of three $25 gift codes to the shop by leaving comments on the posts.

Find all the details right HERE!

Supplies

Note that these are my affiliate links so if you make a purchase by clicking the link below I’ll receive a small commission at no charge to you — thank you!

Farmhouse Tags, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Tag It – Christmas, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

Holiday Sprigs by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

A2 Piercing Plate 2 by Ellen Hutson, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

A2 Piercing Plate by Ellen Hutson, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Snowflakes, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Permanent Alizarin Crimson, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

Winter White, Essentials By Ellen Wool Felt 9 X 12 – 5 Pk

Holiday Sparkle, Hero Arts Glitter Paper

Clear Droplets, HAI Sequins

Ebony Black 100 lb – 25pk, Essentials By Ellen Cardstock

WOW Embossing Powder, Regular – Opaque Bright White

Juicy Clear Embossing & Watermark, Ink On 3 Ink Pads

Watercolor Paper Pad 9×12, Canson XL

Rough Watercolor Paper Pad 9×12, Canson Arches French Bound

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it SNOW! — xoxo Lisa

Enter the Mondo Amaryllis stamp along with the Essential Rectangles dies and watercolors!

I just watercolored the background on a scrap of watercolor paper using Daniel Smith quinacridone rose + new gamboge, then when it was dry I used the Essential Rectangles to cut out the best part! It’s stress free and so relaxing. :)

I just love that peachy color you get where the rose and gamboge overlap.

Tip: running your watercolor piece through the die cut machine will flatten any wrinkles!

To finish off the card I added some glitter glue to the flower stamens — and that was that! Clean, simple and ready to pop in the mail.

I can’t wait to make some more backgrounds with different color combos — thinking of adding in some metallics next time. I could just sit and color all day, how about you?

Supplies

Note that these are my affiliate links so if you make a purchase by clicking the link below I’ll receive a small commission at no charge to you — thank you!

Mondo Amaryllis by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps

Essential Rectangles, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Quinacridone Rose, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

New Gamboge, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors 5ml Tubes

Unicorn, Ranger Stickles

Ultimate Mixing, DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors Half Pan Set

Metallic 14 Pan Set, Altenew Watercolor Paint

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

VersaFine Reinker, Onyx Black

Hope you have a beautiful holiday season, friends! — Lisa