Friday, August 20, 2010

water colors

alright folks, you asked. Now please leave me alone...lol. (kidding)

This post goes out to my real life friends, co-workers and family.

The question I get asked often, "how do you make money on zazzle?"

Well, This is where It all begins:


Thats right folks, markers. But not just any kind of markers, oh no, the water color kind.

and don't forget the piece of 'white' watercolor paper. You don't need to be fancy here, I also have used 'white' cardstock because it's a little smoother, and it depends on the image that I want. Oh, and it's a lot cheaper.

I hardly ever use 'watercolor from a tube' anymore unless I am making a painting. Oh how I love those modern day conviences. Plus, no mess. How can you beat that? You will have your work area cleaned up in a second. woo hoo!

now for the doodles, (drawings) well,here you go folks.

Lets do something easy.


I first take a pencil and lightly make my doodle. Then I take a 'thin tip' black sharpie and trace where I want the black outline to stand out. (Got to love the sharpies)

From there, then it's easy, I just color it with my water color pens.  (practice with the pens first before you use good paper).  The reason I mention practice, is because when you are working with something fluid, it has a tendency to go where it wants. You will get the hang of it in no time.

Now for the different shades of color, i just add little drops of water and take a very clean paintbrush and push the water around.  Again, you really need to practice with it.

OK, now that you have your image, whats next?

I just scan the darn thing in the computer.  Once its scanned, I then may or may not play around with it in photoshop, but I save it as a png file so I can get the 'white' around it transparent.  Sometimes I actually have to go into the image and erase the 'color' where I want it to be totally white.  It all depends on the 'texture' of the paper and what shows up with the scan.

Then you have your image. It's not to hard. I am sure the 'masters' have an easier way to do this, but this is how I learned.

ok, now on to Zazzle.

Here is the fun part. You join 'zazzle' and make a store. Then you upload your image to your store and you put it on a lot of different products and then hopefully, fingers crossed, that someone likes it and buys it.

So that's it folks. I'm not a computer genius, and I'm sure some are reading this thinking, "oh boy, I can do it a different easier way", but for me, Im still pen and paper and my little scanner.

That's pretty much it folks. Oh, the drawing, you can download it, and use it for your own personal use, but do not use it for commercial use please. I gave you the steps to make your own. So Make your own Gosh Darn It!

oh, if you want to try it, you can buy the pens here, they sell them on amazon. I just love 'em.

5 comments:

  1. Thank you SO much for letting us in on your 'secrets'! Those pens sound a lot more appealing to me than messing around with paint and brushes as I do my 'real' art with soft pastels. I think I've got some of those pens...somewhere!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your amusing tale. I love your simple design of a flower and even think I should try those pens. Thanks for the tips...elizabeth

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for sharing. It's your technique that makes your artwork so unique! I fell in love with your shop the first time I saw it because I noticed the artwork was not all created digitally. Great job and thanks for sharing your secret.

    ReplyDelete
  4. great techinique, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete