Are you in a rut?  Do you need some inspiration to get started painting?  Here is a simple, fun painting exercise to get you started.  The best part about this exercise is that you don’t need a lot of preplanned ideas.  I often find that I just want to play around with color and not have the stress of producing a painting.  These fun little abstract paintings can end up as a cover for your journal!

I did this warm up exercise using mostly warm colors.  You will need your watercolor paints, watercolor brushes and a Gold Leaf Pen.
Start by drawing big shapes in your journal or on a small piece of Arches 140 lb watercolor paper with the gold leaf pen.  I drew my initials JN.  Make sure you go off the page here and there.

 Then add smaller shapes within your large shapes.

 Pick a color scheme warm or cool.  I chose a warm palette so I painted all my shapes with yellows, oranges, reds and combinations of these colors. The gold leaf pen lines will act as a resist to the paint.

This is my final page in my watercolor journal