This whole week is Random Acts of Kindness Week (#RAKweek2016 on the social medias) but today is the actual Random Acts of Kindness Day!
So why not print out the image above and slip it onto someone's desk at work, or into someone's mailbox. Just right click and choose 'open image in a new window' then right click on that and choose save image. Print, and voila, you've put a smile on someone's face today.
Leave me a comment and let me know what other ways you've been participating in RAK week!
This week is Random Acts of Kindness Week so I'm trying to do as many little acts of kindness as I can. Paying for the order of the car behind me in the Starbucks drive through lane, leaving happy little notes on peoples desks at work when they aren't looking, and anything else I can think of along the way.
I definitely encourage you to do the same. You'll put a smile on your face, and the person who receives your kindness.
Leave me a comment and let me know what little kindnesses you plan on doing this week.
Hey friend! I'm sure we're already besties on Instagram, which means you know how much I've been raving about my new iPad Pro!
I've resisted going digital for a long time, I tried a few Wacom tablets and didn't really enjoy them. But when the iPad Pro, and more specifically the Apple Pencil came along, and I could do everything from rough pencil-looking sketches to outputting vector art...all from Starbucks...SOLD! And best of all I'm drawing and (digitally) painting more than ever!
Here's a round-up of my top five favorite apps for art and drawing, so far (and believe me, I've downloaded and tried a LOT of apps)!
Now I know this is going to be a controversial 'number one' but here's why I love Adobe Draw so much. Vector Art people. You can output it straight to Illustrator, upload it to Adobe Cloud or Behance with a tap of a finger. Awesome. Think of all the lovely line art coloring pages you can produce on this thing. And while I love, love, love paper and watercolor, it sure is nice to be able to just hit the back button when I mess up.
Here's an example of something I recently drew in Adobe Illustrator Draw.
Procreate is a super professional app with lovely brushes, pens, and other tools to choose from. The Apple pencil works brilliantly, letting you shade when held at an angle etc. You can change the size and resolution of your canvas, have multiple layers, and export your files as PSD / PNG / JPG etc. I have yet to really master Procreate, but I can see the astounding potential of this app.
You can layer your artwork as PSD files, and send it over to Photoshop or Illustrator on your Mac. There are loads of tools, rulers, graph guides and you can import your own images to include in your artwork. With Adobe Photoshop Sketch you can also upload to the Adobe Cloud or send straight to your Behance profile.
I like how simple and clean this app is, but it still has some great brushes including a pencil, watercolor brush, felt tip pen, rotring, and eraser. You get all of that for free, but there are in-app purchases that will upgrade you to having different types of paper, additional brushes, pressure sensitivity, more layers, and different brush sizes. And best of all, if you want to test it out first, you can upgrade for an hour before committing to the $5 cost.
The closest thing you'll find to real watercolors, on the iPad Pro! You can choose the grain of paper you want, how much water your brush holds, and there is even a little hairdryer if you need your layer of paint to dry a little quicker. Hours of fun!
Ok, I'm adding a sixth app to my list. I've just come across Paintstorm Studio. It's the closest thing I've seen to full Photoshop functionality on the iPad Pro. Loads of brushes and options, you can do collage and edit pictures as part of your artwork (most apps just let you have a photo as a background but not actually do anything to it). It is on the expensive size, but not when you consider what a Photoshop license costs!
Now it's your turn. Which of these apps have you used? And what did you like about best about it? Leave me a comment below.
If you’re new here, I’m Jessica — a watercolor artist and fashion illustrator from Australia (but now living in Seattle, Washington). I’d love to connect on social media, come say hi on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter @BrownPaperBunny!
You might also like these blog posts:
"What is the best watercolor paper to use?" is a question I get asked a lot. So rather than just listing out my favorites, I made a short video showing you the differences between hot pressed and cold pressed, the different brands of watercolor paper, and which one you should choose depending on whether you're a beginner or a watercolor pro. Check it out, and let me know if you have any other art questions - I'd be happy to answer them if I can.
Top of my list is:
So, this is my first ever attempt at making a repeating pattern! I definitely recommend Jenn Coyle's Skillshare class on turning watercolor paintings into repeating patterns, or you could follow the tutorial I found over at The Jungalow which was easy enough to follow, but took a lot more messing around in Photoshop than I expected.
I'm also participating in Anika Starmer's Pattern Challenge. She's creating a pattern every single day in 2016, whereas I've only committed myself to a pattern a week. But I am enjoying her monthly prompts. You can find them here if you'd like to join in, or you can voyeuristically check out everyone else's work here.
This is my original watercolor painting. If you look closely you'll see I had to resize a few pesky trees that just didn't want to fit into my pattern.
I've already painted three more of Anika's January prompts, so stay tuned to see how they look as repeating (or 'conversational') patterns.
If you're interested, I also found this super cute pattern tutorial by Julia Rothman, using nothing more than a sheet of paper, markers, scissors and tape. Check it out on the Design Sponge Blog.
Leave a comment below and let me know if you've ever made any patterns, either digitally, or the old-school way!
Adult coloring books are clearly the shizz, so I've been testing out a lot of different coloring tools to find out which ones work best. The quality of the paper seems to be getting better, at least in the coloring books I've picked up lately, so that opens up your options.
Here are the ones I tested:
In order of suckiest to 'OMG I love this marker' here are the results!
The Copic markers are on the pricey side, and they go straight through most coloring book paper stock. Plus they smell really strong. Thumbs down.
I know Sharpies are handy, and you almost always have some in the house. BUT, just like their more expensive Copic counterpart, they went straight through the paper and they smell pretty bad. (Unless you like the smell of Sharpies, in which case I say, put the marker down, and go get some fresh air). Thumbs down.
If you use these colored pencils dry, they do a really nice job. They're soft so they cover and blend well. But if you wet them to make them more vibrant, and permanent, they do go through the paper. Not as badly as the Copic or Sharpies, but still....not great.
I love paint pens, love them. Except for the Sharpie ones. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on Sharpies - usually I love them - they're just not great for coloring. The sharpie paint pens have a super fine nib, and seem to be both watery and dry somehow. So they don't cover the paper very well, and they also tend to bleed through. Thumbs down.
You'll be there for days, head hunched over your coloring book, hump starting to form on your back, just trying to coloring in with these gel pens. The ink isn't free-flowing and the nib is ultra tiny! They might be ok if you have some teeny-tiny detailed spaces to get into, but otherwise I'd avoid them. Thumbs down.
This is a BIG nibbed paint pen. If you got a big area to cover, great. But if you're trying to do the fine detail required in most adult coloring books, forget it. Surprisingly it didn't go through the paper, despite laying down a thick, opaque layer of paint!
I love the variety of colors the Liquitex Paint Pens come in, but they can be a little watery and were just starting to go through the page a little if I colored a larger space with them. They are a fairly broad-nibbed pen too, so not great for finer detail.
The metallic Sharpie ink is much more opaque than its colored friends, and doesn't seem to bleed through the paper at all, unless you do some serious scrubbing. Thumbs up. Side note though, it will cover up your black lines. So you either have to be ultra careful, or not mind too much when the shapes start blobbing together.
This metallic gel pen is wonderful. The ink practically glides onto the paper, it gives reasonable coverage for a fine nib, and it doesn't bleed through the paper! Thumbs up.
These pens have super fine nibs, but the vibrancy and color range they offer is outstanding, and then won't bleed through your paper either. So I'd definitely recommend them for those more detailed coloring pages. Thumbs up.
I love, love, love this pen. It has a smaller nib than it's Liquitex counterpart (still a little larger than a Sharpie though), and the vibrant paint is super opaque and glides onto the paper. Best of all, it doesn't go through the page! Amazing! Thumbs up!
For super-cheap colored pencils, these weren't too bad at all. They blended well, weren't too waxy, and best of all they smelled delicious! Thumbs up.
I found the Prismacolor pencils to be a little waxy and hard to blend, which is strange for a watercolor pencil. They're usually super soft. Having said that, you could wet them and blend the color out, and as long as you didn't go crazy with the water, there was no bleed-through. Thumbs up.
The Derwent pencils are nice and soft, blend and cover well, and you can use a little water to spread them out and make them more even, without them bleeding through the page. Thumbs up.
Surprisingly the watercolors did really well. They were easy to fill in small spaces with a fine brush, and as long as you didn't get splash-happy and use too much water, they didn't go through the paper! Thumbs up.
Ooh, ahh. The Faber Castell markers were my favorite. They have a brush tip so you can easily get into the small crevices, as well as block-color larger areas quickly. They come in loads of colors, they don't smell, and unless you are really scrubbing (and in which case I suggest you get a grown-up to show you how to hold your marker correctly) they won't go through the paper. We have a winner folks!
Here's the front and the reverse of my test page. You can see the sharpies and Copic pens went through the worst, followed by the Inkense pencils when wet.
What are your favorite coloring tools? Leave me a comment below and let me know (preferably a link to them, if you have one handy).
Have a great week everyone!
If you’re new here, I’m Jessica — a watercolor artist and fashion illustrator from Australia (but now living in Seattle, Washington). I’d love to connect on social media, come say hi on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter @BrownPaperBunny!
You might also like these blog posts:
I was recently asked my opinion on tracing. I have mixed feelings, and think it can be useful when you're just learning to draw, to help you out with proportions etc., but in the long run it may do more harm than good. Check out my video response.
If you have a question you'd like me to answer, leave a comment below! And if you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends!
This month the heART Journal is stuffed full of adult coloring pages (including one of mine). 25 different artists collaborating to make 40 beautiful colorbook pages for you, and I'm happy to announce that they're letting me give three issues away!
For your chance to win one all you have to do is comment below, telling me why you think adult coloring books and coloring sheets are so great, and why you need more of them in your life! (Bonus points for telling me what you use to color - a particular type of marker, colored pencils, glitter pen perhaps?).
Good luck and happy coloring!!
And of course, if you haven't already signed up for the BrownPaperBunny Newsletter you should probably get on that. Otherwise you're missing out on more great giveaways, freebies, and cool stuff!
Thanks to Random.org the three winners of heART Journal editions are:
Ladies, please email me here with your contact details and I'll get your issue sent out!
I decided to try my hand at painting a large-scale, geometric mural to brighten up our garage.
My husband helped me tape up the design, using painters' tape, and then I got to work...making a lot of mistakes along the way.
I thought I'd be able to use spray paint, which turned out to be a disaster. The dust from the cans went everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE in the garage, including contaminating all of the other triangles (even when they were covered up). Turns out spray paint doesn't cover large areas very well either, I went through a whole can for every two triangles.
Several trips to Home Depot and I finally got myself some rollers and house paint which were by far the better option.
I used three shades of pink, two shades of teal, and a metallic bronze paint - and did at least two coats on each triangle. It was important to let the paint dry for at least 24 hours before removing the tape, so I didn't mess up the edges. Watch the short time-lapse video below:
I started with the geometric triangle design because it was fairly simple to execute and I thought it would make a fun photo backdrop. In a few months I may paint over the whole thing and try a more complex mural or some graffiti. Any suggestions on what I should paint next?
If you have any questions on the steps I took, or you've painted your own large mural before, leave me a comment and let me know!
While you're here, sign up to the BrownPaperBunny newsletter so you don't miss the special things I only send to my subscribers! (Free downloads, tips, exclusive content, and other fun things).
I LOVE that grown-ups are taking back coloring from the kids! I've long believed that I get the same benefits from painting and coloring in, as I would from meditation...if I was able to sit still and think about nothing...which I'm not. So I think it's great that the world seems to be embracing coloring in as a form of relaxation.
Here is my first free, downloadable coloring printable for adults. You can use markers, colored pencils, glitter paint, or do what I did and print it out on thick watercolor paper and color it in with paints! I also added some metallic pens and glitter at the end, for that extra sparkle.
Watch the time-lapse video below:
If you enjoy this printable I'd love if you shared your end result on social media, tagging me (@BrownPaperBunny) and #BPBcoloring so I can see! If you'd like me to make printables on a regular basis, let me know in the comments!
While you're here, why not sign up to my newsletter, where I share special things I don't give out anywhere else!
Jess
xx
The Fine Print: These free downloads are for your personal fun and enjoyment (and to make the kids jealous) but please do not use them for commercial purposes. If you are interested in using some of my designs, drop me a line here.
I've been having some fun lately, painting little fashion illustrations of my favorite fashion bloggers as superheroes. This one is Aimee Song, or SongOfStyle as Wonder Woman. (My all-time favorite superhero).
Leave me a comment and let me know if you had a favorite superhero (or super villain) growing up!
We were in Alabama for 4th of July weekend. It was like traveling to a whole different world! Our adventures included a watermelon-eating contest, patriotic golf-cart parade, a family wedding, and visiting the historic house where my great grandfather and grandmother were born and grew up! (If you'd like to see photos, visit instagram.com/SweetDivergence).
Now it's your turn, what did you do to celebrate America's Independence? And did you get in any creative time?
I haven't had a lot of time for painting this week because, well, life has been getting in the way. Plus the weather has been completely gorgeous so it's hard not to spend every second out of doors!
But on the unbearably hot days I did manage to find a few minutes here and there to spend some time sketching in watercolor and ink.
Here's a little peek inside my sketchbook this week.
This is a reimagined version of an origami crane sketch I did a couple of years ago. As a kid I was really into origami. In fact, who am I kidding, I still love it!
This second sketch was to commemorate Bike to Work Day here in Colorado. I'd never participated before, and even though we've just moved quite far from the office, I'm really glad I did. Our town had bike stops with free food and drinks, and bike maintenance set up all over town. There were so many people our riding and the whole atmosphere was really fun!
And yes, that's my bike...the pale pink cruiser with a mint basket, which happens to have cup holders built in!
Leave a comment and tell me if you ever ride to work (or what you've been making, painting, crafting this week)!
I was super excited to find that Olivia Adams had featured me as number 1 on her top watercolor artists to follow on Instagram, in her blog post on Brit + Co. I couldn't be more honored, especially because the rest of the list is filled with such amazing artists and Brit + Co has long been one of my favorite blogs!
I wanted to share the list with you, so if you aren't already following everyone, get to it!
I also follow a lot of amazing artists on Instagram, so stay tuned for an additional list of lovelies! And if you have someone you think I should check out, leave me a link in the comments!
If you’re new here, I’m Jessica — a watercolor artist and fashion illustrator from Australia (but now living in Seattle, Washington). I’d love to connect on social media, come say hi on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter @BrownPaperBunny!
You might also like these blog posts:
I painted this watercolor world map a while ago, and had it framed. It now hangs on the wall of my new studio! Last week I started printing the painting onto fine Italian card stock and making my own change-of-address cards. That's when I began getting requests to make the cards available in my store.
You ask, I shall deliver! Ok, don't go crazy with the weird requests, but if it's art-related I'll see what I can do. ;)
I've made the cards available individually or in packs of two. Each card comes with its own cream-colored, Fabriano envelope as well.
Now it's your turn. I want to know what your favorite holiday destination is. Leave me a comment below!
I'm super excited to let you know that I recently worked with Essie Nail Polish on a launch kit for their new Silk Watercolor 2015 Collection. I painted 25 custom illustrations to go out with the Media kits, announcing the new line.
I had so much fun painting these little guys, and I'm completely in love with all the new colors. If you haven't already, you should check them out!
Here's a great video on how to apply some watercolor effects to your own nails!
I'd love to know, do you use your own nails as mini canvases to express yourself, and if so, how? Leave me a comment below!
June 5 is National Donut Day! I have a real sweet tooth, so my solution (to avoid eating 500 of them) is to paint them instead!
To celebrate Donut Day, here's a little download you can print and give to your coworkers, friends, or family - with a fresh donut of course! Just click on the image below to open up the full size, then press print. Easy peasy.
Leave me a comment and tell me what your absolute favorite type of donut is. I'm partial to Krispy Kreme original glazed myself.
And if you haven't subscribed to my email newsletter yet, get cracking. It's where I share special goodies I don't give out anywhere else!
Sketching Donut Day thumbnails in my Sketchbook.
Spring is finally here, and along with all that Spring cleaning, it's time to brighten up your phones, tablets and desktops! So I painted you some free, downloadable wallpapers for all of your devices.
Just sign up to the Brown Paper Bunny newsletter (I promise to only send you fun things) and you'll get the secret link to the wallpapers.
These floral watercolor pretties are available for Desktop, iPad, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, and iPhone 5s. Here's a little sneak peek...
I stumbled across Seb Lester's Instagram account, and his brilliant idea to #BreakBadNewsGentlyWithCalligraphy. How could I resist!
So I painted this note to my husband, using watercolors and ink. If you do your own, tag @BrownPaperBunny, I'd love to see!
It was a friend's birthday this week, so I illustrated her a mini poster. After all, she is the sparkliest mermaid princess I know.
I got to thinking, sometimes we all need a little reminder to let our inner mermaid princess sparkle, so I thought I'd make this print available in my store.
You can also watch a little time-lapse video of me painting it below...
And here is the finished, framed illustration. I'd love to hear what you think!
