Painting or Paint your own postcards seems to be a novelty and a rare sight nowadays as compared to the past. In the past, riding cars used to be a novelty, while riding horses/horse-drawn carriages was the norm. Times have changed since then, and the reverse holds true. Just like the horses/cars analogy, the same applies for postcards and electronic mails (E-mail). I vaguely remember the days where I was so excited to receive an electronic mail. Now, I’m stuck with thousands of unread emails. Postcards, especially those painted ones hold a more sentimental value. In this article, Singapore Artist Celine Chia shares her insight on how to paint your own postcards using watercolour.
Table of Contents:
Materials Needed to Paint your Own Postcards (Watercolour Postcard Painting):
- Watercolour Postcard (300 GSM or more)
- Watercolour Brushes
- Fanned Brush
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Washi Tape (for the borders)
- Micron Pen
- Watercolours
Steps to Paint Your Own Postcards (watercolour postcard painting):
Firstly, use washi tape to tape the borders of the watercolour postcard.
Next, we start with painting the skies. There are no wrong choices in terms of colour combination for the skies. It’s all a matter of how we combine the colours together. In this video, we use purple, pink, blue and white for the skyline.
Feel free to mix and blend for the first layer. In this case, we start off with purple, followed by mixing with a little water to derive the shade of light purple. If you want a lighter shade, feel free to apply more water accordingly.
To achieve the distinct layers, we use bolder colours to segregate the skyline and clouds into more distinct layers.
We use horizontal strokes for the purple and the yellow streaks.
Add light colours for the edges of the clouds (highlights). Use your round-tipped brush to dab and create the texture of the clouds instead of blending the colours together.
To add further effects (light streaks across the skies), use a fanned brush to gently stroke the background. (Blue and White)
Peel off the washi tape once you’re done with your painting!
Sign off on your work of art and initialise it! Be proud of your own unique works of art!
Here’s another time lapse of Watercolour Postcards that Artist Celine Chia worked on previously:
The techniques applied are the same for both of these works.
Start by painting the skies after applying the washi tape across the borders of the postcard. We use sky blue, light purple, white, indigo to achieve the desired effects.
For a more natural and scenic look, we use a darker tone of purple to achieve these darker streaks. Take note not to apply too many streaks, as we want the postcard to have a soft and light pastel vibes.
After blending the layers, we apply the dabbing technique for the clouds. Here, we leave some gaps and spaces to make it appear random. The colours used are phthalo blue and grey for the shadows (streaks).
Last but not least, peel off the washi tape when you’re done with the postcard! Don’t forget to sign off as well!
Let your imagination run wild as you create your own personalised variations of watercolour postcards!
If you’re keen to learn from Artist Celine Chia, sign up for her postcard painting workshops today! In the meantime, do stay tuned to our socials for the latest updates!
