Happy Fall, Y'all

With Halloween already far behind us, and Thanksgiving just around the corner, it is safe to say that fall is well upon us. This means tons of yellow, red, and orange, and all things nature. The aesthetic of fall is so universally known that just searching the word conjures up thousands of images of pumpkins, turkeys, and fall trees.

Often, people bring the feeling of the season into their own homes with decor and furnishings that scream "It's finally fall!". They fill their houses with artificial leaves and pine cones, and pretty much anything pumpkin spice.

These decorations are beautiful, and completely evoke the feeling of the crisp, cool autumn season, but are often expensive, and are only used for a short amount of time before Christmas decorations start flying off of shelves world wide.

So, why not bring fall into your home without spending tons of money? DIY decor is so fun, simple, and such an easy way to add a personal touch to any space

In this post, I will show you how to create a simple yet beautiful watercolor that is guaranteed to bring the feeling of fall into your home. It is quick, easy to do, and is sure to have anyone who sees it feeling the fall time spirit! I hope you enjoy and try this DIY at home for yourself!

1. Gather Your Materials. For this project, you will need the following:

• 1 piece of watercolor paper
• A roll of masking tape
• Watercolor paints- green, yellow, red, orange, and brown
• Brushes
• Black acrylic paint or a sharpie for lettering
• A bowl of water

2. Put down masking tape on the paper so that there are lines of negative space scattered randomly.

3. Lay down a light wash of colors over the whole paper. This will serve as a foundation and will make blending later easier. Make sure your paints are plenty wet.

4. Continue layering and adding colors to the paper. This will add dimension and depth to your painting. This is the step where you can choose how subdued or how intense you want your color saturation to be.

5. When you are satisfied with your result, give the paint a few minutes to set so that it is not runny, and then remove the tape, revealing your negative space.

6. Use a pencil and write the words, "Happy Fall, Y'all" on your painting. You may choose any font or saying that you would like. This is just the one I chose for this tutorial.

 7. Trace over the writing with black paint or a sharpie, and enjoy your DIY fall craft!

So it Begins...

Honestly, when my English teacher told me I'd have to create a blog and regularly post on it until the end of the school year in May, I was less than thrilled. I have had little to no previous experience with them, other than clicking the occasional Pinterest link. When asked to come up with a theme that my blog would be centered about, I had no clue what I wanted to write about. But then I got to thinking about subjects that I could easily write about and not get bored with after a month. And then it hit me. I would write about art.

Besides the one hour class I take four days a week, I don't have much time for art in my free time. There's no time for sketching, shading, and painting when you are an athlete, student, and generally very involved in more than just showing up to school every day. Between school, games every weekend, family and friends, I hardly have two hours to myself to just sit down and let the creative juices flow.

So, I'm going to use this blog as an excuse to take time out of my busy life to do one of my favorite things- create. It will give me a valid reason to step away from all of the duties of my every day life.

This blog will be used as a way to better my artistic abilities, explore new techniques, and share my hobby with other people who share my passion for pretty things.