My Foray Into Watercolor Painting (in which I become a mixologist of both paint-water and cocktails and find it hard to visually differentiate between the two)

January 28, 2013 by Anne 4 Comments

At my behest, my loving husband got me these nice watercolor paints for Christmas, and last week, I finally mustered up the courage to break into them. (Usually with things that look this nice, I am rather hesitant to mess things up. You understand.)

I will admit to having to Google how to actually use watercolor paints that come in tubes, since my art education stopped at 2nd grade and dried Crayola discs of watercolors in yellow boxes.

And my first watercolor-ing attempts unfortunately reflected my meager education. Please don’t hold this artwork against me. Showing this “painting” to the internet is an act of vulnerability on my part, and I’d kindly request that you remember the old phrase “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Yup.

In light of the fact that using watercolor paints might actually involve time and effort and talent (which I may or may not have) OR require me to watch a YouTube tutorial (good heavens, please no!), I decided to go an easier route and busted out my FrogTape.

Even I can color inside the lines. (I excelled at that the last time I used watercolors in second grade.)

Once I doused that paper in watery paint, I carefully peeled back that tape to reveal my masterpiece.

I had fun doing the actual painting, but just as fun? Cleaning out the brush in the water, creating swirly temporary masterpieces. Any watercolorist knows, however, that once the swirling colors mix together, it is remarkably easy to get a super disgusting color. I lucked out this time.

But then I was reminded of my favorite mixed drink to make. This was a definite “if you give a mouse a cookie” situation.

So I made myself this.

Here’s the recipe for this “not-a-cosmopolitan-but-sort-of” recipe:

1 oz Vodka

1 1/2 oz Triple Sec

2 oz Cranberry or Fruit Juice

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

Shake vigorously in a martini shaker with ice and enjoy responsibly.

All in all, the whole art project went swimmingly. I will definitely pair these two activities at a later date and hopefully again avoid drinking the paint water. Let me know if you’d like to join me.