First Watercolor Attempts

Other than an intro to Korean watercolor a year ago (an art exploration that absolutely sold me on watercolor painting) these watercolors are my first attempts at the art. Since that intro, I've watched a few watercolor YouTube clips and wow have I been inspired! Just needed a vacation with some time to put my new interest into action. 

I was trying to teach mom some basics of watercolor and since she's in love with her Birds & Bloom magazine, we referenced that for ideas. Watercolors done on 4"x6" tablet pad of mixed media paper for marker, pen and ink, and watercolor.

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

A friend really liked this baby elephant, to quote her "so sweet". She wanted it to frame but no way is someone getting a three-legged oddly-balanced embarrassment. Made the mom-and-baby elephant pair for her as a consolation, but think she still liked the "sweet" baby better. 

Must work on color mixing. Having trouble maintaining cool and warm tertiary colors. 

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

Whip-sketched a greeting card for another friend - the background is kind of cool.

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

Hanji Tissue Paper Boxes

Tissues boxes made from hanji, the traditional handmade Korean paper made from mulberry fibers. Brought tons of hanji on a vacation visit to give my mom and four of her friends a hanji art class. The ladies kept their own boxes and the rest I made for several of the other elderly church ladies.

Last year I gave an introductory hanji class to most of the same ladies, but when I saw a new line of delicate leaf-shaped hanji that could be layered over other hanji colors (the roll of white fibers -- x4 patterns -- in the upper left-hand corner of the pict below), I got inspired to teach another class, hence the wide variety of colors. So ultimately, many of the tissues boxes ended up with three kinds of hanji: the inner lining that no one typically sees (cheap machine-manufactured hanji), fibrous handmade hanji of many different qualities on the outside, and on several tissue boxes the third layer of handmade delicate, pulpy hanji in leaf and other patterns.

The black or very dark-colored hanji can be applied with various wrinkles and textures, and then when dry, can be gradually bleached with a 40% bleach - 60% water mixture. These fibers were pretty thick but some papers can't take such a high concentration of bleach without destroying the paper fibers.

Gradually after several sessions of wiping and allowing to see the effect, the fibers get lightened and take on character.

THE COMPLETED HANJI TISSUE BOXES

Once all the boxes were made, I applied a couple layers of coating (Korean product) on each to bring out the color and give a protective layer to the fibers. Now all of the boxes can be lightly dusted off with a damp rag to keep them clean and the fibers won't be damaged in the process. 

picture by KD, one of the recipients