Do you have a watercolor painting that is missing something but you can’t put your finger on it? Try spicing it up with a mixed media art project!
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Are you looking to add more depth and personality to your watercolor paintings? Try doing a mixed media art project and adding colored pencil to your watercolor painting. I wanted to make my avocado painting look more fluffy, like the actual stuffed animal, and try out my new colored pencils. This project did both of those things. It was a lot of fun and so easy.
You will learn about new creative art ideas, turning your watercolor painting into a mixed media art project using colored pencils, and more!
After reading this post you will be able to use colored pencils to add a new element to future watercolor paintings.
Easy Mixed Media Art Project for Beginners
Supplies needed: finished watercolor painting and colored pencils.
In this article, you will be shown step-by-step with the avocado painting and how to use colored pencils to create mixed media artwork. If you want to follow along, check out Watercolor Art for Beginners – Cute and Easy Avocado Painting to paint your avocado.
If you have a painting that you want to use for this exercise go ahead and use it! You will need to adjust the colors to work for your painting.
Mixed Media Art Project
Your adorable avocado painting is now dry and you are ready to start drawing with the colored pencils.
The best way to figure out what colors to use is if you have a scrap piece of paper with the same colors you used on the painting. Use that scrap paper to try out different colors and pick the ones you want.
I used the Kalour Colored Pencils from Amazon. They come with a reference sheet you color in which is very helpful to know what each pencil looks like. There are a few of the pencils that aren’t the color you would expect. I’ve also grouped colors with rubber bands so it’s easier to find the colored pencil you want.
Colored Pencils
If you want to use the same colors as me, we will be using:
- Green C005 – Outer Shell
- Emerald Green C113 – Outer Shell Shadow
- Lemon C040 – Middle
- Yellow C004 – Middle Shadow
- Apricot C064 – Middle Darker Shadow
- Bubblegum C002 – Cheeks
- Black C012 – Eyes and Smile
Avocado’s Outer Shell
Use Green C005 everywhere that there is the outer shell. A sharpened pencil will make the strokes more uniform and exact.
The entire purpose of using colored pencils is to create the effect of the soft, fluffiness of the avocado stuffed animal. You won’t want to “color” with the pencil. You will want to make single strokes of various lengths. Don’t worry about coloring within the lines. Having strokes that go onto the background will add to the fluffy fur.
I used short strokes, but you can use longer ones to make it look fluffier.
Once you are done with the main color, you will add the shadow color: Emerald Green C113. Using the same technique for the strokes add the shadow to the bottom of the outer shell, both sides. You won’t want the shadow to cut off unnaturally so taper off the pressure and amount of strokes you use as you move upwards.
*Add another shadow to the right outer shell, making it darker near the bottom. The yellow fluff would be giving off a shadow on that side.
*After I finished this piece of art I realized that I placed the in wierd places. If the light was coming from the upper left side of the page we would the green shadow would be on the right side, the yellow shadow would be on the left side, and the shadow from the pit would be to the right of the pit.
Avocado’s Yellow Middle
Use short strokes of Lemon C040 to create the fluff of the avocado’s middle. This color can be tricky to see and you don’t want to just color it in smoothly so you may want to space the strokes further apart. Once you have the middle fully covered go back and add strokes to places that need it. Remember you want to keep the texture.
Pick up the Yellow C004 pencil to add a lighter shadow. You will apply this color to the left edge along the green outer shell, the right mid to lower edge of the pit, and the bottom of the avocado.
You will use Apricot C064 for the darkest parts of the shadow. This will be the upper left corner where the yellow middle meets the green outer shell and the stem, the bottom left corner, and the right next to the pit.
If the shadow becomes too dark, go back over it with the Lemon C040. However, doing this multiple times will ruin the textured effect.
Avocado’s Face
Using the Bubblegum C002 pencil outline the cheek. Then to give the look of thread lines, you will draw straight lines from top to bottom. Leave some space between each line so the pink watercolor paint can show through.
Do the same thing with Black C012 for the eyes. Be sure to leave the white dots uncolored. Trace over the smile with Black. You can make it thicker if you would like.
Finished Artwork
I chose to keep the pit, stem, and legs watercolor paint without adding colored pencils. I liked the texture of them already and didn’t think that they needed anything else. However, if you want to you can. Since the fabric of the pit, stem, and legs isn’t fluffy you can color them in smoothly.
Reflection
Take time to learn from your artwork. Use the questions below to help with your reflection.
i. What do you like most about it?
ii. What don’t you like least about it?
iii. What would you do differently next time?
iv. How have you improved since your last piece?
After looking and reflecting on this project I realized that my shadow placement was off. To learn from this, in my next project I am going to focus more on where the shadows will be.
Let me know how your piece of art worked out and what you learned from it!
This post was all about how to complete a mixed media art project.
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