Ok, I think this post should REALLY be called:

How to be Totally Unpopular in the Watercolor World

Not really. But there is some GOOD NEWS for those of you who think buying watercolor is just too expensive… or for those of you who think you’d REALLY like to try your hand at painting but you just don’t happen to have any watercolors lying around. Well, do you have markers? Then listen up…

Warning: you’re losing money by not using markers!

Winsor & Newton is my brand of choice when talking about good watercolor. There are definitely nicer ones and DEFINITELY cheaper ones. But one thing I don’t like about cheaper watercolors is the chalky texture they leave behind. Ewww…

I’m not really going to go into detail about other really nice brands of watercolors or the difference between squirt tubes vs cake pallets… but you’re MORE THAN WELCOME to go spend a bunch of money and try those all out on your own. Been there - done that! College is expensive… ESPECIALLY when you have to buy all kinds of art supplies ON TOP of books and food… All I’m sayin’ is that I WISH I’d have known about this trick when I was out trying to decide between art supplies and dinner. I might’ve chosen differently.

Ok, if we’re being totally realistic here - a small W&N pallet is only $14, so you’re not saving THAT much money. But that pallet has 12 colors (one of which is white… so NOT really a color).

And we all know that you can get like 5 Gazillion Crayola markers on Amazon for under $10. OR… for those of you brave enough to risk WalMart during back-to-school shopping - they’re going to be even cheaper!

So WHY NOT use those cheaper markers if the effect is pretty much the same thing?!

Supplies you will need:

(substitutions noted)

• Markers (duh)

• Water (in something you won’t be tempted to drink out of. It’s happened… mistakes were made. Moving on)

• Brushes (I like to have a few different shapes and sizes (round, pointed, flat, big, tiny, etc.)

• Towels (I usually do paper towels, but towels or an old t-shirt will work fine… for those of you who don’t mind an extra load of laundry. On that note though, these used paper towels will dry and you can use them again. My girls like the way they look and will let them dry and they display them. The paint dries in fun colorful patterns.)

• Non-porous plate (I keep little plastic party plates for this, but I’ve also been known to sit out back with my pack of markers and a china dinner plate. Don’t worry… it wipes right off. Trust me)

Tutorial:

Uncap your marker and color some of the ink onto your grandma’s fine china (or a plastic party plate - you do you)

Dip your brush in your water. (Realize you accidentally dipped it in your glass of red wine. Go wash out your brush, chug the wine, and start again… WATER, people… WATER!)

Mix your wet brush with the marker on your plate.

Paint!
(it’s seriously not rocket science)

Want the color lighter? Add more water.

Want the color darker? Use less water.

Filled up your plate with too much marker? Drip a bit of water on the plate and use that towel to wipe it up and start over.

Don’t have just the right color of marker? Mix 2 colors (or 3 - go CRAZY) of markers together. My TIP for doing this is to color them side-by-side on your plate and drag your wet paintbrush through all of the colors to mix them.

**Below are a few of my marker paintings.

This way of painting is PERFECT for kids! The cleanup is a BREEZE! My girls and I will go sit in the backyard with my bag of Crayolas and paint the afternoon away. Not recently though. We live in Alabama and the South hasn’t figured out what season it wants to be. Is it winter? Is it spring? Is Noah boating up the driveway looking for some animals? Wait, it’s winter again? Now it’s 75… ? WHO KNOWS! When the weather levels off, we will have 3 blissful weeks before the temperature outside is comparable to the seventh level of hell.

Those 3 weeks are for painting (and gardening and yard work and ***insert all the outdoor activities). After that, I’ll do my painting inside, thanks. 

Let me know in the comments if you try this technique. It’s seriously my FAVE type of painting right now.

❤️