Hi everyone, Natalie here! It is my absolute pleasure to introduce you to Kerry, a wonderful watercolour painter and letterer who I had the privilege to get to know through the handmade-paint-loving Instagram art community.
 
“I’m Kerry, a hand lettering and watercolour artist living in the UK. Art isn’t my full-time career, but I did get a degree in illustration before pursuing my other dreams. I’ve been lettering and painting with watercolour for about 2-3 years, and lately have been focusing on more typography inspired pieces and improving my skills with realistic watercolour. I’ve been using handmade metallic watercolours in the last 1-2 years and was really excited when Natalie asked me to share some more about them and the different ways to use them in your art.”
 
This blogpost is ALL about metallic or shimmer watercolours and how to use them in different ways. Whether you’re a fan of Finetec, Daniel Smith duotones, Hydracolour colour-shifting paints or any of the other amazing makers who make beautiful sparkly magic, we hope you will find this useful! The idea originally came from a passing comment by my (Natalie’s) husband, after I had splashed quite a lot of $$$ recently on sparkly watercolours and was lettering in front of the TV every night xD
 
“They’re really pretty, but what can you do with them besides lettering?”
 
Well, that’s what we’re here for! Kerry and I would love to share with you how we use shimmer watercolours to create pretty things: whole art pieces, painting, lettering, blending, and all of them at the same time! This blog post is written based on our personal experiences in using metallic, shimmer, or mica watercolours, and if you had any other ideas, we’d love to hear them too!

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All about metallic watercolour
Metallic watercolours are really popular in the hand lettering community and for good reason, they’re gorgeous and who doesn’t love an extra bit of sparkle in their lives? But we wanted to show you that you can use metallic watercolour for more than your standard brush lettering. If you’re new to metallic or pearlescent watercolour, then they are speciality paints that include mica powder - this gives it the paint a shiny, shimmery or glittery effect. They are opaque and behave differently to standard matte watercolour, which means the consistency is going to be different as well. When you activate metallic pans (add water), they usually need to sit longer (anywhere from 1 - 5 minutes depending on the pigment), and you’re looking for a thicker, creamy consistency rather than a watery consistency. While waiting for the paint to activate, you can also swirl your brush around to ensure that the paint activates consistently across the pan so you don’t end up with a “hole” in the middle (if that bothers you!) This paintbrush swirling also helps the paint activate faster as it stirs more paint particles and encourages them to mix more readily with water.
 
Handmade metallic paints are really popular, and there are tons of makers to choose from (many of which have been featured in the Sketch and Story boxes!). They can be a bit of an investment but they’re worth it, and bonus - you’re supporting someone’s dream!
 
Creating a full painting using just metallic watercolour
How often do you see a painting that is full metallic? I’m betting not often at all (if ever!). And it’s because metallic watercolour behaves a lot differently to your standard matte watercolour pans, if you add more water to blend the colour out, the end result is patchy instead of a nice blend from opaque to almost transparent. And this causes a lot of issues painting because with watercolour especially, water (the hint is in the name) is a key part. But, it’s not impossible - it just requires adjustments. For me, they lend themselves to an illustrative style such as these metallic bugs I’ve started painting.

Think bold, flat, almost vector style images; where blending different shades isn’t going to be a major element and one where you want your paint to be opaque throughout the entire painting. If you want to give this a try yourself, start with a simple image with a limited colour palette and build it up from there, contrasting colours or very different shades of the same colours will help your colours not blend into each other too much. Don’t forget to swatch them together - and check that in the light the sheen isn’t too similar either!
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Adding metallic accents to your matte artwork
Metallic watercolour isn’t just for fancy hand lettering, it can be used in so many different ways, and adding little accents to mainly matte watercolour paintings is one of my favourites. I’ve used it in a lot of paintings, it’s a simple addition but can change a painting drastically. The key is picking out elements in your images that are dotted throughout your painting so you don’t end up with a lot of metallic in one corner, you are looking for a balanced image. For example, in this Tangled inspired piece, the lanterns are a consistent element, and being a light source, metallic watercolour really bought that message across.

I said above how adding too much water to metallic watercolour can leave you with a patchy less than desirable result. But, you can use that to your advantage too.

​In the two paintings here, I used matte watercolour first and built up layers until I was happy with the overall look. I then went (lightly and gently!) over the painting with water to keep it wet, be careful not to move the paint around you’ve just put down!). And then dropped in metallic watercolour and let it bleed out. It might be tempting to add more water directly to your metallic pans, but keep the same creamy consistency that you would usually and let the water you’ve just added to your painting do the work - this will stop it looking patchy and instead give you a blended look. I’ve done a number of paintings where I’ve added in metallic accents, so here are a few more examples of ways to incorporate it into your art!

Painting with metallic watercolours on a matte blend background
You might have seen lots of galaxy blends with silhouette pine trees in the foreground – they’re all the trend nowadays!
 
But that’s not all you can do with blended backgrounds. You can also use your metallic watercolour to paint directly on top of a blended background. For example, one of my favorite things to paint over a TV dinner after a long day at work are these shimmer leaf bookmarks. They are incredibly simple and relaxing to paint – simply sweep the background with any matte shade of your choosing – a plain colour or two, or mix a whole galaxy blend – it’s up to you!

​They’re a wonderful way to swatch new colours since you can test out how they react with water, how pigmented they are, and experiment with different combinations of shimmer and matte! AND you end up with a stunning, giftable piece rather than piles of swatch cards – although I must admit painting swatch cards is a completely different world of joy in itself ;) I was very pleasantly surprised to see how beautifully the rose copper shimmer on the rightmost bookmark complemented the purple and teal combo – who would’ve thought?
 
Of course, you can use shimmer watercolours to paint lettering on top of a matte blended background too!

​This piece was created by lettering on top of a blended background, and then I used a thicker mix (by letting the water evaporate a little in the pan before swirling my brush around) to create splatters as accents and make the piece more eye-catching!
 
Switching it up within your hand lettering
When you see hand lettering done using metallic watercolour, it’s usually the letters themselves that are done with them, but you can use them slightly differently too. It can be as simple as adding a drop shadow in and filling it in with your favourite metallic colours, instead of using your metallic colour for the letter with a matte shadow.
 
Bevelled letters such as the letter A below, are really fun, and using different metallic shades of the same colour family can really make your work stand out. Drop shadows are a simple way to make your lettering bold and eye catching, you can do a nice blended shadow with more dimension, like in the letter B, or go simple with a flat colour like the letter C. The two variations of the letter D gives you an idea of how simple or illustrative you can go with your lettering, a simple outline can create a strong piece, or go fun and create your lettering in the style of an object, here I went for melting ice lollies because it’s pretty hot right now! Or on the same thread, try doodling metallic flowers in the shape of a letter, like E, which would look pretty cute hanging on your wall. One of my favourite pieces is the “be kind” rainbow drop shadow piece where I use glitter metallics (like in example C).

​You could also pick them in combination with matte colours. You could pick out one or two word and add metallic paint to that, this works really well when you pick a colour shifting watercolour and use the two colours (or one) in the rest of the piece. In the “be more than just your content” piece, I picked out a colour that was next to the background colour on the colour wheel, but in the light it’s a colour that closely matched the background colour. Adding a shadow and outline kept it from bleeding into the background here too. The other option is replacing the matte blacks you might use with a metallic black. I use a lot of black so having metallic blacks really come in handy to add an extra sparkle to my pieces.

 And that’s all for today friends! We hope that you have found these tips and tricks useful when you next add to your shimmer watercolour collection ;) Do tag us on Instagram using @theinkybrush and @sketchandstoryUK if you try out these techniques, we’d love to see what you come up with!
 
xx Kerry and Natalie

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(In all the pieces Kerry is sharing, a combination of Hydracolour and StakiwiColours were used, two small businesses that are run by women and produce high quality paints. Disclaimer: Kerry is an ambassador for both businesses, but there are no affiliate links for products in this blog post.)

Well, 2020 has been somewhat of a ride. Needless to say, it has not been the exciting start of the new decade that I had envisioned.

But now is not the time to bemoan what cannot be changed. When things are confusing, I choose to shift my mindset to a positive – or, even better – a fruitful one! Naturally, art helps me with that tremendously.

I would like to share with you some of the ideas which helped me to remain productive and enthusiastic about making art in these uncertain times. It comes down to:

When you can’t see sunshine – become the sunshine yourself.

​Please let me elaborate on where I am coming from!

Create regularly, not perfectly. 
I am BIG on consistency. And simply showing up.
If you treat your art seriously, your art will treat you with respect in return. But what does that mean?

I have found that when I create regularly, I fall into a rhythm of making work as if it were an important task that needs to be ticked off my to-do-list.
No, you don’t need to make art *every single day*. We all have different schedules and responsibilities, and life is busy even during a lockdown; I know it all too well.

When I say ‘regularly’, I don’t mean sticking to the same time of the day either. It would then be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if you miss that slot, you are a failing creative! This is the approach of a masochistic perfectionist, and as much as I tend to be one myself, I also know that this is not the way to go about loving self-care, especially during a worldwide pandemic. 😉

Your ‘regularly’ might mean every couple of days, or perhaps an early morning at the weekend and a late evening of a weekday. Maybe you can doodle in your sketchbook at lunchtime, or when on the phone with a friend. Perhaps you only feel like drawing once a month because you simply don’t feel inspired every day – and that’s cool!
What counts here is to *remember* to always come back to your craft.

Keep experimenting whenever you feel like you can devote a slice of your undivided attention to it.

We all have to begin somewhere.
Forget your ambitions of pristine excellence and the need to create a masterpiece every time you paint or draw.

Let’s be real, you won’t come up with a staggering beauty of a painting just because you ‘really want to’. Heck, quite the opposite, you will have to go through a lot of mediocre practice to get to the good stuff; we all do! Once you truly accept and relish this simple fact, you will enter a blissful state of creating for the sake of learning and exploring, and not the arbitrary achieving.

It has always been about the journey, not the destination. When you make yourself fall in love with the creative process itself, the fruits of your work will grow naturally as a result of steady, patient practice.

And that precisely is the way your art will start respecting you – by organically improving itself (yes, it does start to take a life of its own!) if only you remain conscientious and patient enough to attend to it consistently, and with loving intention and patience.

There is no one-size-fits-all for what creative practice is. 
You need to discover what ‘makes you tick’, and that will be different for everyone.
Perhaps you feel like you are rushing when you draw in the mornings; but have you tried doing it late at night instead? Are you feeling differently depending on the weather, the music you listen to, the people you talk to?

If you put unnecessary labels on ‘how’, ‘when’ and ‘what’ you should create, you will potentially never feel like you can really leave the beginner phase of your art journey.
Therefore, it is important to try different approaches and see what works for you and what makes your own creative juices flow. I genuinely want to encourage you to treat this as a way of self-discovery!

​If you feel stuck, try mixing up the art supplies you use. If you haven’t yet found a medium that makes you want to jump with excitement every time you think of it (as I do when I think of watercolours – even after three years of painting with them!), experiment with something new.
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Pencil drawing bores you? Try sketching in ink. Are acrylic paints frustrating rather than fun? Roll out some calligraphy nibs and try your hand at lettering! Perhaps you enjoy traditional watercolours, but have you played around with liquid watercolour paints to expand your horizons?
 
Okay, so now you feel overwhelmed because there is too much to choose from… 😉
How about ordering a rolling subscription box full of surprise art supply goodies arriving at your doorstep? That will surely keep your creative mind on its toes, and you will not need to make the choice of what to buy!

The possibilities to evolve as a creative are pretty much endless, regardless of what craziness is unfolding in the external world. The only restrictions exist in the limitations you put on your understanding of what creativity ought to be.
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Your sketchbooks can be neat or messy; thematically consistent or as random as you like. You can pick them up every day, once week, or once a month. It does not matter!

 What matters is that you allow yourself to discover where your unique version of creativity flows from. This might be wildly different to my process, or that of the multiple amazing artists you see on Instagram and mercilessly compare yourself to (I know you do it!).

Go out in nature if you can. Read an intriguing book. Listen to your beloved record and cook a delicious meal. And then yourself – “what is it about my favourite things that draws my attention to them? What makes them pleasurable in the first place?”
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The answer to these questions is where the foundation your unique version of creativity resides. Go and explore that source.
If you can’t see sunshine, find the sunshine within yourself. During a pandemic and beyond!

I can't believe we are properly in summer mode now! This morning Mr. Sketch and Story and I went down to our local coffee shop, passed by our park and there were SO many people enjoying the sun in tank tops and flowy skirts (at a safe distance of course). It's a bank holiday in the UK today, which is why pretty much every single British person and their grandma is out in the sun right now. 

Doesn't this bright, summery colour palette remind you of a lovely day out at the seaside? Azure waters, golden sands and deep blue skies - oh you can tell I've been indoors a long time! 

This stunning painting is by one of our Featured Artists, Christine Rogerson (Cris), who I have previously called the Floral Queen! She paints gorgeous wreaths and flower bouquets for all occasions and all seasons, and has also recently expanded into a range of household items like cushion covers and teaching classes on Skillshare. Having admired her work for a long time, I asked about her journey into painting and transition into illustration. 

How did you first get into painting and later on, illustration?  
I discovered watercolor after I sat with my daughters one afternoon to paint with them.  We were just using a child’s paint set, but I really enjoyed it.  I thought maybe I could learn to paint some simple things to hang in my hallway.  I learned there was SO much more to watercolor than I ever expected, so I started taking some online classes.  I found the medium so challenging, and very much a distraction from everyday concerns.  My mother was terminally ill at the time, and I found painting to be wonderful therapy.  This interest has blossomed into experiments with sketching and other mediums such as gouache.  I have really enjoyed all of it!

Where do you get your inspiration from? 
In the beginning I think I was like a lot of those just starting out.  I was inspired by other artists.  As time went on, I began to develop my own style and now I look to nature for most of my inspiration.  I also love taking classes to learn new techniques.  Taking a class always inspires new ideas!

7) What’s your favorite colour to make and why?
Oh, there's too many! Though, I really enjoy making green earth colors because they're oh so silky. 

8) What's your favorite book?
I don't read as much as I'd like to, but I recently picked up a small book called The Sweet Life in Paris. It's a really good read that made me laugh. 

9) What’s the next step on your journey? 
I've been thinking about wanting to open a shop for a long time, but I imagine it won't be as soon as I'd like, so for now I think I'd like to being building my own website. ​

1) How did you first get into paintmaking?
I purchased a discontinued paint from Winsor & Newton that was discontinued in the 60s and I wanted to recreate it. I failed but I caught the bug and started making small batches of paint and the rest is history.

2) Where do you get your inspiration from? 
I know it's very cliche but everything in life. Music, the environment, strange shapes, moods, films & TV. Rather than finding inspiration I feel inspiration finds me so it can be random what ends up inspiring me.

3) Tell us a little bit about your paintmaking process.
I select the pigments I want to turn into paint, this can be on impulse or well-thought-out and on my wishlist for ages. While the pigment is being shipped I make my binder which is my own recipe and takes a few days of stewing. I make a small batch of paint to start with to test it. I mull using a glass muller and slab which helps grind down the pigment and helps form a nice smooth paint. Once I am happy with the paint and that it dries and rewets correctly, I will make a larger batch. I fill my pans in lots of layers which allows the paint to dry and condense down so that customers get the maximum amount of paint I can squeeze in to each pan. Once everything is all dry, I label the pans and wrap them in three layers. They then get photographed etc before being purchased.

5) What’s one tool you can’t live without? 
Paint making: my palette knife.
Painting: My watercolour palette, I love it so much instead of getting a bigger one to fit all my colours in I am looking at customising it instead.

6) What’s your favorite colour to make and why?
I'm not sure I can pick one particular pigment. I really like making yellow paints and blue paints. They are easiest to mull and they always turn out the best. I don't have many nasty surprises with them.
I also like unique earth pigments when I am in the mood for a challenge!

7) What’s the next step on your journey? 
To continue and grow. I really want to be able to have a day job part time and paint and make paint part time. I am at that stage where I need more time to spend on painting and that really is the focus for the next two years to be able to get to that place. ​

This was our first ever edition of Sketch and Story and of course the theme had to be Lush! I wanted to create a selection of LUSH art treats that you would be thrilled to receive and can't wait to unwrap and try it out as soon as it arrived! (For all my international friends, "lush" is used in the UK to describe something very lovely, a bit like you would say this spaghetti is DELICIOUS.)

And of course, Lush also refers to it being spring in March. New buds popping out of the ground, fresh air, sunshine and lots of greenery after this bare, bleak winter. You can see I do love my puns :) That's it about the theme, let's chat about what was INSIDE the first ever Sketch and Story! 

Artisan watercolours - Dan Barrett
The featured colours were Magenta and Sunflower Yellow, handmade by Dan Barrett. They were smooth, rich and non-granulating - perfect for painting spring florals and botanical scenes. Stay tuned for an interview with Dan coming soon on this blog, with swatches of these lovely paints!

Royal Talens Ecoline Brush Pens
Forest Green and Light Green shades were included to complete the spring botanicals theme. Wreaths, fresh grass and shrubbery - take your pick! These brush pens were also fully blendable with a paintbrush. 

Karin Brushmarkers Pro
Delicate and pastel colours in pale purple and pale pink, for blooming crocuses and peonies. 

Violet florals washi tape
In case you didn't quite get the theme yet - here are MORE florals in the form of washi tape! Great for journal layouts, happy mail, and to tape a border for your paintings too. 

Artist postcard - Lauren Georgiou
Our first featured artist was Lauren Georgiou - it was quite a no-brainer for this lush, spring-themed box! Lauren paints beautiful wreaths and florals all year round  and you can check out her Instagram at @georgioudraws. 

Welcome note
Every subscriber gets a handwritten welcome note in their first box! I wanted to express my heartfelt appreciation to every single one of you who believed in my project and am so thankful for your support. 

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Unfortunately this edition of Sketch and Story has sold out, but you can check our shop here for more examples of our subscription boxes.