July 2018 Archives

July Plan With Me – How to Do a Watercolor Wash Background with Blocked out Spaces

It’s World Watercolor Month!

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew it when I started planning my July pages. Or maybe it was because I recorded all sorts of fun holidays in my future planner” and I subconsciously remembered it. Either way, this month’s plan with me is immensely appropriate for the month! I’ll show you how I did my watercolor wash + what I learned and tips & tricks.

How To Do a Watercolor Wash – My Process

If you want to recreate this in some way (adding your own twist of course!) you’ll need:

Paints (I use Crayola Markers)
Paintbrush or Water pens
Water (if you use the paintbrush option)
a Notebook
Sticky notes or masking tape to block the water in specific areas
Patience or a blowdryer to speed up drying time
Pens or Markers to add dates/events/details after

Block-It Off

Block off the sections of your notebook that you want to keep from painting. I cut the sticky notes to the size I wanted (remember that I did have some bleed under the sticky notes from the water – I was okay with it, but keep that in mind). If you use tape or another sticky substance, make sure to test it out on another page first (maybe one in the back) to make sure you don’t tear the page or something when removing the tape.

Choose your palette and paint over the whole page or sections you want to watercolor wash. I tried to do a gradient fade from dark to light in my journal, but it required a lot of water, and the pages of my notebook couldn’t handle that much water (as you can see below with the bleed through).

The less water you use, the less chance you will have to bleed through. I used the same markers in June, less water, more intense color, less bleeding, lesson learned.

Patience or Hairdryer & Add Details

Once the paint is dry (either through extreme patience or with a speedy blowdryer) to increase the look of the gradient, I outlined each line of days on the monthly calendar with dark to light markers from top to bottom.

Add the days of the week and the name of the month and all the events and voila! Done. For even more detail, use a gold or silver pen to add little details and doodles around the remaining background.

Favorite Places for Random Holidays:

From World Watercolor Month to Sea Turtle day, I love some random holidays. So I thought I’d share my sources for where I find my random holidays to celebrate! I subscribe to some of these guys on twitter & Instagram; I love their notifications.