Colouring pages

I’ve been working on these little sketches for a few weeks now. I’m pretty happy with them and they are proving to be quite popular.

I have 7 new designs of various flowers to native and wild animals.

I’m really excited to show you. These will be a social media item. I will not be putting them in my Etsy store for now.

Normal White Printing Paper – perfect for colour pencils.

£0.70 each with a postage cost of £1.30 per address.

Mixed Media Paper – great for acrylic paint or watercolour paint.

£1.10 each with a postage cost of £1.30 per address.

Choose one or all of the designs and enjoy creating beautiful art.

if you would like to purchase some these cute little designs, please pop over to my Facebook or Instagram pages!

Cheers,

Chrissy

How to – Paper or Canvas

As an artist I get many questions. One is what paper or canvas is best to use. The answer isn’t always straightforward. In this article I will walk you through a few different but easily accessible choices based on the look your are going for.

Sketching/Drawing

For practice drawing and sketching you want to have a smooth paper. A hot pressed paper that isn’t too thick. Anything up to 120gsm is pretty good. The thickness of the paper will still give you a quality feel to your sketch and the hot press will give you a smooth finish. The smoother the paper, the cleaner your lines will be which will give you a more realistic look.

My current art journal is less than 100gsm and is not suitable for anything other than sketching. Below is a picture of an Orca I sketched sometime ago. If you try to use other medias (paint or watercolour) on this type of paper it will wrinkle and curl. It damages the paper and if you do that, there’s no saving it.

Orca – light weight sketch paper

Mixed Media Paper 250 gsm +

The below sketch is a graphite on 250gsm mixed media paper. This paper is meant to handle Acrylic paint well, water colour however, is a bit of a stretch. I love it to print my art work on to this paper because it has a bit of texture just like a canvas and it gives the print a really good quality look and feel.

Norbit the dragon – Graphite sketch

Cold Pressed Cotton Paper

A cold press paper is rough, it has what is called ‘tooth’. It is ideal if you like that bumpy, textured feel and look to your painting. I personally don’t like to draw on this type of paper. I love to paint on it! I use a 300gsm cold press cotton paper with my acrylics. You get a matte finish with the textured finish of a canvas. The cotton paper is actually made for water colour paint because it can handle the wet application without creasing and folding. I use watercolours and acrylic and it performs beautifully.

Poppies – Water colour in watercolour paper

Stretched Canvas

There are several types of canvas you can purchase. The main types are stretched canvas, canvas board and canvas sheets. I prefer to use a stretched canvas. I like the bounce back it gives. All types of canvas have a tooth (bumpy texture) that I love! With the stretched canvas’s you don’t have to frame and can hang as is.

TOP TIP – be sure to paint the sides of your stretched canvas. It will look more professional once on the wall.

Saundersfoot beach – on Stretched Canvas

Above is an acrylic Painting is on a stretched canvas of Saundersfoot Beach. This is my favourite material to paint on.

Canvas Board

As you can see from the below picture canvas board performs much like a stretched canvas. It has a tooth, although not as deep or prominent. It is an easy and cheaper way to start painting. They come in all sorts of sizes and packs. You can frame them easily too.

Raspberries – Acrylic paint on Canvas Board

I hope you liked my tips for how to choose the right paper or canvas, be sure to check out my article on How to improve your Sketches.

My first blog post as an Artist.

UPDATE: Since 2017, and publishing my very first post I have sold a number of images and created all sorts of wonderful artworks. You can see a body of my works in my Etsy stores, and on my website products pages.

I decided to take the plunge and become a professional artist. Here you will be able to follow me through the highs and lows of becoming an artist and in my life.  So here goes nothing!

And follow me on instagram here: www.instagram.com/chrissyturley30

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Find Prints and a beautiful range of home decor gifts in my ETSY store – Blue Unicorn Home

I would like to thank all of you who have supported me so far. I’m always going to create and learn so stay tuned. Xxx