Mixed Media Spring Leaf Border Tutorial
Hello friends, Adrienne from Studio 80 Design here to share a fun, spring-themed mixed media tutorial! When it comes to mixed media, almost anything goes! Combine two or more medias such as watercolor, markers, ink, colored pencils, etc. together to create dimensional artwork. For this project I'll be working with watercolor and ink to create a spring-time floral border with lettering inside. Let's get started!
Materials you'll need:
- Archer and Olive A5 Pink Flowers Dot Grid Notebook
- Pencil
- Three green shades of watercolor
- Small Round Paintbrush
- Cup of Water
- Paper Towel
- Small Brush Pen
- Eraser
- Black Monoline Pen
Step 1
The first thing to do is lightly sketch out a border for your leaves with your pencil. I drew my border 5 squares wide all around. I love using the Dot Grid Notebook for this because it makes measuring so easy, and you don't have to use a ruler!
Step 2
Use your lightest shade of green watercolor to paint various leaves around your border. Make sure to leaves spaces in-between each one for the other colors we'll use later. Here's a tip: before putting your brush to paper, touch it lightly on a paper towel to ensure you don't have too much on your brush.
Step 3
Take your next darkest shade of watercolor and paint various leaves around your border. Try overlapping a few onto the lighter shade!
Step 4
Use your darkest shade of green watercolor to fill in the rest of the space around the border. Again, feel free to overlap some of the leaves. Make sure all the empty spaces of the border are filled in!
Step 5
Now comes the hardest part...waiting for the paint to dry! This is a good time to work on the quote. I like to sketch it out with pencil first so I can see how everything fits. Then I go back and write it in with a small brush pen. Once you're sure your watercolor and ink are dry, erase any pencil marks on your page.
Step 6
The last step to do is draw on top of your watercolor leaves with your black mono-line pen. I love adding ink on top of watercolor because it can add more details and make the colors pop!
Thank you so much for following along, I hope this tutorial was helpful! For more inspiration like this make sure to follow me @studio80design!