Start with a piece of watercolor paper (I use 140 lb Arches paper) torn to the size you want.
Tape your paper to a workable surface around each edge using a removable painter’s tape.
Paint a colorful watercolor wash and let this dry. I used new Gamboge, permanent rose, permanent magenta and cerulean blue.
With a pencil, draw some heart shapes, some large, some small. Overlap some hearts. Negative paint around each heart. This means you paint the background around the hearts, creating heart shapes in your painting. Let this dry.
Draw a few more hearts and negative paint again around all the hearts. You can negative paint these hearts several times to make a rich, glowing background. Painting over your last layer is called watercolor glazing. Glazing and negative painting
Here are some fun ideas for Valentine’s Day Love!
Now decorate the hearts in fun ways: polka dots, checks, stripes. You can either use watercolor or colored pens and markers or a mix of both! Have fun, doodle, think of your loved one. Here is your opportunity to put a smile on their face! PUT A BIRD ON IT!
With an ink pen, draw around your hearts and outline the tape before pulling it off the edges.
While traveling and painting in Italy this fall, I started noticing hearts on the ironwork that adorns the windows of Venice and other towns and villages. Once I noticed them, I was finding hearts everywhere. They were beautifully blended on doorways, windows, and etched into the stones. I took some photos that I wanted to share with you. The more I looked, the more I found.
Doorway
Venice
Hearts of Italy
On the wall
Hearts of Italy
Hearts of Italy
Painting in Italy
Jacqueline Newbold’s color-filled watercolor paintings capture a moment in time – sunlight on red poppies, the glow of a Tuscan village perched on a mountaintop, or the brilliance of a dramatic Oregon Cascade Mountain sunset. Jacqueline loves to share her passion for watercolor painting and mixed-media art journaling by teaching in her Art in My Heart private studio, the Art & Soul Retreats in Portland, Oregon, France, and Italy. She teaches private watercolor lessons, classes, and workshops in her private art studio in Bend, Oregon. Her next overseas workshop is with French Escapade in Provence, France, May 2019. Her paintings and mixed-media art journals have been featured in magazines and books such as Somerset Studio’s Art Journaling, Interweave Press’s Cloth Paper Scissors, Studios, as well as the Cloth, Paper Scissors Book and Splash 17, the Best of Watercolor.
I am thinking of starting out the New Year with a personal challenge of doing some quick, fun, colorful, simple, daily painting in my watercolor journal. Does anyone want to join me? Creating small daily watercolor sketches is a great way to get inspired. It is a great way to warm up to a larger painting.
Here are the Pixie Girls that come to my studio to inspire me to paint…. they are here to welcome in the NEW YEAR! They are saying, “Let’s get painting!”
Pixie Girls like to play
Pixie Girls having fun!
Pixee Girls
What is new for 2019? Here is a wonderful trip planned to Provence, France. Do you want to join me?
Watercolor art painting workshops with Jacqueline Newbold
Join me for this wonderful watercolor, art workshop in France. We will be on an artistic journey of creative expression! Our home base will be a charming medieval village in Provence, as we have fun creating beautiful art in our watercolor journals.
Inside my Watercolor Art Journal
Painting in Provence, France
Doors of Provence
Painting in Provence
Gordes, France
Having fun in France!
Barb’s Beautiful Journal
More Beautiful Paintings!
Enjoying our time in France!
You will learn to incorporate watercolor and mixed-media techniques as we spend a magical time together exploring the area, rich with sights, sounds, and colors – all wonderful inspiration for developing your artistic eye. Our host will be frenchescapade.com. They will provide many delicious meals cooked by a French chef and transportation to painting sites. We will stay in a charming hotel with a little river meandering through the garden, an outside swimming pool, a hot tub, and a riverside terrace bar all surrounded by impressive mountains. This workshop is available for all levels – beginners and experienced artists are all invited to come along on this delightful trip!
Wishing you a merry Christmas! It is a beautiful time of year. With the holiday upon us, it is sometimes hard to find time to paint. It is fun to paint watercolor Christmas cards. Here is a painting that I painted of two birds sitting on a branch with a snowy look. I sprinkled white gouache into the watercolor paint while it was drying in order to get the effect that it is snowing. I sprinkled more white gouache on the painting after the painting was dry. That way some of the gouache spread and softened, while the drier gouache made smaller looking drops of gouache.
To finish, I added white gouache on top of the berries and on top of the branches to give the look of snow piling up. I hope you enjoy this little Christmasy watercolor painting!
Artist Jacqueline Newbold enjoys painting life in color!
My next teaching trip is to Provence, France, May 2019. You can find out more information about the trip with French Escapade. Join me for a fun time!! You will be able to create a journal just like my Italian watercolor and art journal!
I wanted to show you how I go from photo, to sketch, to painting using my watercolor journal.
Here are some pages from my Italy journal. I drew the sketch from a quaint street scene in Oriveto, Italy. Here is a photo of my inspiration:
Photo of Orvieto Street
After I took this photo, I used it to create a sketch.  I showed my students an easy way to use a drawing program on my tablet. This helped to get the perspective correct. It also helped to get the placement of the buildings. Here is my sketch:
Sketch of Orvieto Street
From this sketch, I was able to create a watercolor painting in my journal. Here is the journal painting:
Artist Jacqueline Newbold enjoys painting life in color! Her color-filled watercolor paintings capture a moment in time. She loves to paint the sunlight on red poppies, the glow of a Tuscan village perched on a mountaintop, and the brilliance of a dramatic Oregon Cascade Mountain sunset. Jacqueline loves to share her passion for watercolor painting and mixed-media art journaling by teaching in her Art in My Heart private studio, the Art Unraveled Art Retreats in Phoenix, the Art & Soul Retreats in Portland, Oregon, France, and Italy. She teaches private watercolor lessons, classes, and workshops in her private art studio in Bend, Oregon.
“Art journaling to me is not so much about making art but recording my life in a colorful way. My journals are a place where I can experiment with different art mediums, sort things out, write about my life, my sorrows, my adventures, and travels. I play with color, sketch, doodle, take notes, make lists, add inspiring quotes and write about my day. The process is fun, and I love when the result surprises me.”
Check out my new article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine, A New Twist on Pen & Ink
My article,”A New Twist on Pen & Ink“, is in the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissor.
My article,”A New Twist on Pen & Ink“, is in the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissor. It is available for purchase now. It is about how I add pen and ink to my watercolor paintings. I give many examples from my journal paintings.
Unfortunately, I am sorry to say, that this is supposedly the last issue of CPS! This magazine has been a great inspiration to me as a budding artist. I remember how timid I was about submitting my first article in 2008. It was accepted and published in 2009. I was ecstatic! It encouraged me to continue along my artistic journey! That was the same year that I took a group of artist to paint in Provence, France. Boy, did we have fun! I encourage you to write letters to the publishers, F& W to ask for the magazine to continue. I think it is the only one that meets our watercolor and mixed media needs.
Artist Jacqueline Newbold enjoys painting life in color! Her color-filled watercolor paintings capture a moment in time. She loves to paint the sunlight on red poppies, the glow of a Tuscan village perched on a mountaintop, and the brilliance of a dramatic Oregon Cascade Mountain sunset. Jacqueline loves to share her passion for watercolor painting and mixed-media art journaling by teaching in her Art in My Heart private studio, the Art Unraveled Art Retreats in Phoenix, the Art & Soul Retreats in Portland, Oregon, France, and Italy. She teaches private watercolor lessons, classes, and workshops in her private art studio in Bend, Oregon.
We had a lot of fun spending time painting in our watercolor art journals while in Orvieto, Italy. We painted scenes from the beautiful convent gardens and palace where we stayed, as well as the nooks and quaint corners of the town itself. One day we went wine tasting at a vineyard that had a gorgeous view of Orvieto. There were white roses blooming everywhere! This was a beautiful, relaxing day of painting as well!
Art journaling to me is not so much about making art but recording my life in a colorful way. My journals are a place where I can experiment with different art mediums, sort things out, write about my life, my sorrows, my adventures and travels. I play with color, sketch, doodle, take notes, make lists, add inspiring quotes and write about my day. The process is fun, and I love when the result surprises me. I have written articles for Cloth Paper Scissor and the Art Journaling magazines about using watercolor and mixed-media together.
Do you ever dream of going on a watercolor painting vacation in Provence, France? Well here is the perfect opportunity to paint and explore the charming villages of sunny Provence! I have just returned from teaching a watercolor workshop in Orvieto, Italy and I want to share with you why I love it so much!
Watercolor Artists in Orvieto, Italy
It is so lovely to be with a group of like minded artists who love to explore their creative side. It is relaxing and fun to paint what you see, describe what you taste, smell and savor. Provence is a culinary, artist’s delight! When you go on a painting vacation, you have time to create a watercolor journal filled with memories.
Painting in Europe
You will grow, evolve and blossom as an artist. Even if you are a beginner, you will start to see things differently and the beauty of it all will make a peaceful, colorful impression on your heart and soul.
Friends!
What a gift it is to bond and share with friends and loved ones. It also a wonderful way to make new friends!
And then there is the wonderful art that you create:
Consider joining me on this fun, relaxing, joyous adventure!
It’s been a lovely time painting and relaxing in Umbria and Tuscany Italy. I brought my watercolor journal and a few painting supplies. Relaxing with a glass of wine on a sunny, warm Terrace, I was able to paint this beautiful scene at our little villa just outside the walled city of Cortona, Italy.  My journals have become my diaries. I call them visual diaries. Painting is my specialty and not really writing. I would rather paint, draw, and experiment with mixed media. Therefore, art journals are not so much about making art but recording my life in a colorful way.
Have you taken your art outdoors lately? Whether in a man-made or natural setting, halfway around the globe or in your own backyard, creating en plein air can result in wonderful artwork inspired by the world around you. Artist Jacqueline Newbold is often inspired by nature for her mixed-media watercolor creations. In this article from our July/August 2014 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, Jacqueline shares her easy, stress-free technique for drawing and painting colorful flora and fauna.
Paint the Colorful World of Flora and Fauna
Summer sunshine and blue skies bring out tiny creatures—ladybugs, dragonflies, frogs, and more. Flowers, birds, and animals are out in full force, too. Take a closer look at the wonderful world of flora and fauna surrounding you, and you may be surprised at their color-filled lives.
My interest in flora and fauna started in college when I was majoring in botanty
Along with my plant studies, I took an entomology course (the study of insects) to help me get over my fear of little creepy, crawling bugs. What I discovered, with the help of a magnifying glass, was a fascinating world of insects cloaked in the most amazing array of colorful combinations. I saw bold stripes of black and gold, coats of gorgeous metallic turquoise and copper, and delightful polka dots. These tiny creature had shimmering translucent fairy-like wings. These were just a few of the wonderful hues and patterns I found. Discovering this amazing tiny world of color did get me over my fear of insects. It continues to give me inspiration and great subject matter for my watercolor journals.
When I first began adding flora and fauna to my journals, the drawing process intimidated me. I wanted to accurately depict these things.
Over time I came up with an easy, stress-free technique
I convert flora and fauna into a series of connected ovals, circles, ellipses, and rectangular shapes, and then fine-tune the shapes as needed. It is much more manageable to think of them in this way. Now I enjoy drawing, painting, and adding my field observations of these delightful creatures to my journals.
