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Easy Christmas illustrations
Cosy up inside with a little watercolour and doodle project in the long, cold December days! We, Trine Holmvard and Gitte Klaussen from @KreativLivsstil, created an easy step by step guide for you to make cute little Christmas art without having to be a master of watercolours or drawing. We invite you to follow along!
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Watercolour meets Zentangle
In this blog, I am going to show you step by step how to make a watercolour and pen illustration. Even if you have never painted with watercolour before, you will surely succeed if you follow the steps! The watercolour illustration is made of two colours that go together beautifully. We use the wet-on-wet technique.
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Heda's still life in Van Gogh watercolours
Join Anouk Bijsterbosch in painting a still life! In this step-by-step plan, Anouk shows you how to recreate a painting from the Golden Age using Van Gogh watercolours: Still Life with a Silver Tazza by Willem Claeszoon Heda. Using watercolours, you can beautifully recreate the colour transitions and the transparency of the glass.
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Sumo wrestler
Sumo is an ancient Japanese form of wrestling. This traditional sport is known worldwide for their heavy-bodied participants. Since sumo, unlike western wrestling, does not have any weight restrictions or classes, the athletes tend to bulk up to make sure they aren’t outweighed by their opponent. The biggest wrestler is not guaranteed to win, however. Though sumo mostly revolves around physical strength, smaller wrestlers may have an advantage due to their speed and agility. Sumo wrestlers radiate strength and power. In this step-by-step plan, we show you how to draw a mighty sumo wrestler using water colours. Although water colour paintings are usually seen as soft and delicate, there are several ways to create some impressive imagery using differences in colour intensity, contrasting colours and some bold line work. Let’s get into it!
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Loosely painted flowers
Have you ever started your work with just some lines, drops or splotches to see where it leads you? Water colour is ideally suited for this kind of technique. It allows you to set your creativity free, let go of your perfectionism and explore the possibilities. Create outside the lines! In this step-by-step plan, Justyna Pennards, our technical advisor, shows you how to freely paint with water colours to create these pretty cherry blossoms. Have fun trying out this technique and achieve a great result that you can be proud of. Let's begin!
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Crane
In this step-by-step plan, Michelle Dujardin shows you how to create a crane using water colours. She will take you through the process in steps, showing you exactly wat to do with which products. Michelle Dujardin uses Sakura Koi Water Colors for this project. You can find this tutorial in her book ‘Watercolor in simpele stappen’ (water colour in simple steps). For now, this book is only available in Dutch, but she hopes to publish it in more languages soon!
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Orange peonies and cherry blossom
Royal Talens was established in 1899 in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. In 1991, Royal Talens became part of the Sakura Color Products Corporation, a company from Japan. The flowers in this drawing depict the wonderful collaboration between these two companies: cherry blossom to represent Sakura and orange peonies for Royal Talens! Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom, while orange is the national colour of the Netherlands and heavily incorporated into our brand as well. We can't think of a more fitting image! In this step-by-step plan, Merel Jansen, our technical advisor, shows you how she created this spread of different flowers in a sketchbook! As you can see, the drawing flows over into the next page. This style was inspired by Emakimono, traditional Japanese drawings created on horizontal scrolls. Let’s begin!
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Irises
Flowers and plants are popular subjects for watercolour paintings due to their flowing shapes and bright colours. But how do you create a botanical watercolour painting? In this step-by-step plan, Siona, our colleague from the Royal Talens Experience Centre shows us how to create a botanical watercolour painting using coloured Sakura Pigma Micron fineliners and Van Gogh watercolours. Learn how to construct a flower and how to create beautiful colour transitions.
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Spring is in the air
Spring is in the air: time for fun, colourful hand lettering! In this step-by-step plan, Martine from the Royal Talens Experience Centre shows you how to use masking fluid, Ecoline and bubbles to create this negative-space hand lettering piece. Let’s begin!
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Magnolias
Magnolias are seen as a symbol of dignity and nobility. They can also be associated with femininity and love. The blooming of these beautiful, majestic magnolia trees gives us hope that spring has finally arrived! Their beauty is not easy to capture – how do you make them so stunningly white like they are in nature? In this step-by-step plan, we show you how to recreate these lovely flowers using water colours.
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Kodama tree
Japanese folklore states that there are many spirits inhabiting the world around us. These spirits can resemble anything from animals to inanimate objects and even human beings. Kodama are spirits that inhabit trees. Trees a spirit supposedly resides in should be respected as you might become cursed if you attempt to cut it down. The Japanese tradition of coexisting with all of nature’s spirits inspired us for today’s artwork. Though the spirits depicted in this illustration are not necessarily those that Japanese folklore describes, we thought it would be fun to imagine what kinds of spirits would live in trees by making them appear with water colours!
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Abstract watercolour with metallic accents
We love trying out new techniques whenever we can! In this step-by-step plan we show you how you can add special effects to watercolour using alcohol or methylated spirit. To add some sparkle, we used metallic gel pens. Use this lovely combination in your hand lettering or illustrations to make them stand out even more!
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Kasuga Taisha in Nara
Nara is a city in Japan near Osaka that is known for its historical buildings, traditional imagery, beautiful landscape and temples. Yet, one of the most noticeable things about Nara is the deer that walk around everywhere. This includes the temple ground of Kasuga Taisha, one of the most famous temples in Nara. The deer are believed to be sacred messengers of the Shinto gods, so they are treated with the utmost respect. Vendors around Nara even sell treats to feed the deer with, which has made them very friendly to humans over the years. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sakura, our Japanese brand, in 2021, we would like to share this beautiful Japan-inspired water colour illustration with you. This drawing depicts a common scene at Kasuga Taisha: deer following people around while they walk around the temple grounds. Get inspired by the dreamy imagery in this step-by-step plan! Don’t forget to have a look at the video at the bottom of the page to see some of the process!
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Japanese Tradition: Daisugi
To celebrate our Japanese brand Sakura’s 100th anniversary in 2021, we would like to show you how to paint a traditional Daisugi tree. Daisugi is a Japanese forestry technique that originated in Kyoto around the 14th century. Shoots from a type of cedar tree are carefully pruned so that multiple branches grow straight up from the base of the tree. This ancient tradition allows beautiful, straight logs to be harvested from the tree without having to cut it down at the base, which makes it a very sustainable forestry technique. The harvested logs are often used to build traditional tea houses. The Daisugi technique gives forests a mysterious, outer-worldly look that we want to help you portray in this step-by-step plan. The finished artwork’s colours and style are inspired by Japanese woodblock prints called ukiyo-e. These prints are characterised by their large, bold-coloured areas and a notable absence of shading and perspective. The pigments used in these prints were often blue, brown and orange, but we decided to also add green for the forestry.
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Crane and Red Sun
The crane and the red sun are arguably the two most iconic symbols of Japan. Both are ancient, important elements that can be found all over Japanese history and art; the red sun is even used in the national flag! Cranes are often depicted in paintings, origami (paper art) and literature. They are known to symbolise good fortune and longevity because of their fabled long lifespans. Join us in celebrating 100 years of Sakura, our Japanese brand, and learn how to bring these iconic Japanese symbols to life using a mechanical pencil, water colours and different pens.
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Portrait
Step by step, layer by layer, it is explained how to build a portrait. How do you obtain depth, what are and how do you work with granulating colours?
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Bridge
Watercolouring is painting with large amounts of water. The more water, the lighter the colour. Wherever colours are mixed in the step-by-step plan plenty of water is always added. Begin by filling in the lighter colours and leave unpainted the areas you eventually wanted to be white. You then work with increasingly dark colours. Allowing work to dry thoroughly between stages (if necessary with the aid of a hair-dryer) prevents colours running into each other. Have you used too much paint? Soak up as much as possible with a clean, dry brush or tissue. Hold the brush more or less vertically when applying details and flatter when washing large areas. Hold the brush clean while working to avoid unwanted colour mixtures. Before you start, go through all the stages.
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Flower
Watercolouring is painting with large amounts of water. The more water, the lighter the colour. Wherever colours are mixed in the step-by-step plan plenty of water is always added. Begin by filling in the lighter colours and leave unpainted the areas you eventually wanted to be white. You then work with increasingly dark colours. Allowing work to dry thoroughly between stages (if necessary with the aid of a hair-dryer) prevents colours running into each other. Have you used too much paint? Soak up as much as possible with a clean, dry brush or tissue. Hold the brush more or less vertically when applying details and flatter when washing large areas. Hold the brush clean while working to avoid unwanted colour mixtures. Before you start, go through all the stages.
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Boats on the beach
Watercolouring is painting with large amounts of water. The more water, the lighter the colour. Wherever colours are mixed in the step-by-step plan plenty of water is always added. Begin by filling in the lighter colours and leave unpainted the areas you eventually wanted to be white. You then work with increasingly dark colours. Allowing work to dry thoroughly between stages (if necessary with the aid of a hair-dryer) prevents colours running into each other. Have you used too much paint? Soak up as much as possible with a clean, dry brush or tissue. Hold the brush more or less vertically when applying details and flatter when washing large areas. Hold the brush clean while working to avoid unwanted colour mixtures. Before you start, go through all the stages.
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