Let’s paint a Christmas ornament!
I thought it might be time for a fun tutorial for the Christmas season. What do ya think? Yeah? Okay, Let’s do this thing!
I know this looks simple but there’s a neato little technique that makes this super fun, plus, I share several variations at the end.
Let me take a minute to talk about circles. As creative people who are expressing ourselves in our art, we are drawn to certain shapes, marks, colors etc. One of the shapes I love is a circle.
The circle represents unity, wholeness, infinity, timelessness, without a beginning or an end. Yes please! No wonder I’m so drawn to this pleasing shape. Also, a hug is a form of a circle and I’m a hugger, just sayin’.
And here’s the other thing, if you’ve never worked with watercolors, this is a GREAT entry point. This past week we had company from out of town visiting us and I asked my friend if she wouldn’t mind being my guinea pig for a class I’ll be teaching this week at Kitsap Art Center. I knew she hadn’t ever worked with watercolors before and people like her are my favorite ‘students’! She agreed and we started with the circle, just as a warm up to the class.
Guess what? She LOVED it! I love when I can help someone come over to the bright side of playing with art and especially watercolors!
Without further ado, let’s get started!
** IMPORTANT NOTE: Please read through ALL of the directions before starting as watercolor is a time sensitive medium and you’ll need to know the next step as soon you complete each one.
Supplies needed:
*I’ve supplied some links to a few of my favorite supplies and am required to tell you that as an Amazon Associate, I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases. If you plan to buy the supply, I’d love for you to use the links below which helps support my business in a small way and the cost remains the same for you – thank you!
- A glass jar of some kind (works best if it has a little bit of flat edge around the top)
- Watercolor paints (pans or tubes, doesn’t matter) – I prefer tubes of Winsor and Newton
- A paint palette – my absolute favorite is the one shown below
- A round paintbrush size 6 or 8 – I use Princeton Heritage round size 8
- Watercolor paper – I use Arches cold pressed 140 pound
- A jar of water
Step 1
Be sure to activate your water colors:
For pans, put several drops of water on the colors you choose and let it sit for a minute before swirling your paint brush in there to mix the color up in the water.
For tubes, put a little in a palette and add a bit a water, wait a minute then mix it up with a paint brush.
Okay, now paint the top of the jar with your colors, one on part of the lid, then the next, then the next. I’m using 4 similar green, blue, teal colors. You can just use ONE color though if you’d like.
Step 2
Now carefully turn the painted lid of the jar over and place on your watercolor paper, try to make sure it doesn’t shift. Just place it down and lift it off and set it aside.
Step 3
Now here’s the super fun part! Dip your paint brush in water and get it wet, then take that wet brush and place it on the inside of the circle and pull that color into the circle like so:
A typical mistake beginners often make is to not use enough water. But also, there’s a point that you have too much water and it becomes a ‘pool’ of water. So, play with it until you get just the right consistency. Remember, art is play!
Step 4
Wait for that one to dry, but in the meantime, you can do another one somewhere else on your paper.
You can overlap them but the first layer has to be 100% dry before layering or it will just blur together and you will loose the crisp edge of your circle where it overlaps.
Step 5
Okay – now to make it into a Christmas ornament, you just add the little thingy on the top and a hook or string from which is hangs.
Here’s where you can get even MORE creative! For instance, if you got some unexpected splatters outside of your circle, as you can see in mine above, just make a bunch of intentional splatters all over the whole thing. Splatters always look great and can ‘fix’ a myriad of problems!
*sidebar: I later added text to it (as seen at the top of this post) with a graphic design program called Canva.
More Ideas!
Perhaps put messy ink circles around them if the circles got a bit misshapen during the process. Messy circles make everything better!
Or maybe draw fun designs into your ornaments with various pens:
Here’s another fun idea: paint the side of a Christmas tree on the side of your paper and when that is completely dry, paint your ornament and it will blur the branches behind like a glass bulb would.
Well? How do you feel? Amazing? I told you so! Now, go on and make lots and lots of circles and may you feel whole. Please feel free to share this with others if you think they’d enjoy this tutorial!
Kimberly Snider, Virtuoso, signing off
P.S. The next in-person watercolor class will be at Kitsap Art Center on December 14th from 6pm-8pm. We will be be painting these Christmas String Lights, wanna come? Click HERE to sign up. I’d love to play art with you!
