Are these postcards wash and ink if they have no ink?

If you’ve been paying attention ‘round here (I don’t blame you if you havent been!), I’ve been on an inking bender. With sparkly watercolor. And dip pens.

In today’s vintage watercolor postcards, all that comes together - even if the tape ripped my postcards (boo!). I had wanted to see if I could draw in watercolor with a dip pen….I didn’t include it in class techniques, because, frankly, I didn’t want people who weren’t steeped in watercolor knowledge and supplies to need to go out and buy a bunch of paint tubes. The inks for class are much more affordable than that!

Watch the video below - and if you could, pop over to YouTube to leave a thumbs up to feed the algorithm! If you’re reading this in time, join us here in chat during the 8am Pacific Premiere.

Supplies (affiliate links provided at no cost to you; thank you for using my links and supporting my work!) Winsor & Newton Watercolor postcards (not recommended, the tape rips the paper!) BLICK | AMZ Speedball Sketching Dip Pen Set BLICK | AMZ Daniel Smith Watercolors used: Lamp Black BLICK | AMZ | JACKSONS Quinacridone Burnt Orange BLICK | AMZ | JACKSONS Transparent Red Oxide BLICK { AMZ | JACKSONS French Ultramarine BLICK | AMZ | JACKSONS

I have gathered quite the collection of shells over my lifetime….I do wish I had all my childhood shells! One of my favorite outings during our yearly Myrtle Beach vacations when I was a kid was to go to the bigggggg souvenir store where they sold every kind of shell you could ever want. And salt water taffy.1 And refrigerator magnets, keychains, and stickers with your name on them. I saved up my allowance to blow it on all kinds of goodies!

A few weeks ago I took a little roadtrip to Ocean Shores, the closest Pacific to me….and I went to a bunch of the little souvenir shops after finding no shells on the beach. But the bonanza was still available for purchase, just like when I was a kid! I did have a basket of decorative shells at home, but it felt like such a treat to buy some new ones that were too expensive and required a drive of several hours each way to get to the beach. It’s as close to a summer vacation as I’m getting this year!

The postcard stems from that - I laid out a pile of shells to sketch, and picked a nice muted set of colors that would be soft and neutral. The fun of splashing on some watercolor and playing with ink techniques was only muted by finding the reason I hadn’t used these postcards up yet - the surface of the paper is delicate and ripped when I pulled it off. Dang. But it goes with the distressing of the paper, so I think it’s okay :)

The day I was at Ocean Shores, it was socked in with fog - but I had some pictures from a previous trip out there last year. So I pulled out the old shots to make a landscape postcard as well. Rocks are SO FUN - so much so that I’ve made TWO videos in a row with rocks, whatcha think of that? If you missed the last one, it’s here:

During our zoom call last night I worked on my Big Bend drawing from a few weeks ago, adding more rocks and a javelina family has entered the scene.

Also the test mentioned in the video today: I mixed up a rich bit of Lamp Black and applied scribbles to paper with a dip pen, then let it dry. After an hour I swooshed some yellow across it - the top part is less wet, the bottom is puddled. So you could in theory watercolor a VERY simple wash over a Lamp Black drawing, but don’t make it too wet or use more than one stroke - a simple swoosh is all you can do before it starts to soften the Lamp Black.

The seashell classes are finally (99.5%) done! As of this writing late Friday night, there’s one last lesson in each that needs to be finished up this weekend, but there’s plenty of fun available for those chomping at the bit to get rolling.

The reasons it took a little longer? 1) construction work in the neighborhood. Booo! and 2) I decided to include some educational materials about the critters that live in the shells we’re drawing, which added an hour or more to the prep of each lesson. Worthwhile, I think, even if I’m wiped out by now!

As soon as those final videos are uploaded, the price on class goes up a little, so get ‘er now if you want to save a little extra.

1. Ink Drawing Jumpstart (level 1)

2. Sparkling Seashells Class (level 2)

3. Inked Seashells Class (level 3)

About what else - seashells!

1. What do you call a seashell that works out?
   A muscle shell!

2. How do sea creatures talk to each other?
   On their shell phones.

3. What is a seashell’s favorite song instrument?
   The conch-erto.

4. Why are seashells so easy to trick?
   Because they are gull-ible.

5. What do you call a seashell that works out?
   A muscle shell. [1, 2]