Watercolor Valentine Heart Tutorial

Yes, it's almost that time of the year again...

So how about something quick and easy?

That involves paper and paints..

And is also HANDMADE.

And let's paint them in three different ways: wet-on-wet, ombre and striped.

To check out V-day projects we have done in the past, click on an image below:

For this project you will need:

Scrap papers for your heart stencil/ heart template

1 x  5.5" by 5" piece of watercolor paper

2 x 4" by 4" piece of watercolor paper

Watercolor paints

Brushes

Scissors/ Craft knife

Pencil 

Ruler

Masking tape

Wet-on-wet

Start off by drawing a half heart on your scrap piece of paper. Make sure the paper is thicker than the normal printing paper so that the paint doesn't seep through it.

Fold the paper in half lengthwise and cut the heart out. This will be you heart stencil! 

Place your stencil on a 5.5" x 5" piece of watercolor paper and adhere it with masking tape.

Mix alizarin crimson with water and paint the heart. Let it dry.

Now working really fast, load your brush with alizarin crimson and paint the heart leaving some areas as you go along so that the first wash shows through.

While the paint is still wet drop in lemon yellow, cadmium orange and cadmium red in the middle, ultramarine blue and purple lake along one of the edges.

Then remove the stencil and let your heart painting dry.

Ombre

Begin by drawing an asymmetrical heart on a scrap piece of paper. Using a craft knife cut out your heart and adhere the stencil on a 4"x 4" piece of watercolor paper.

Load your brush with alizarin crimson and paint the top portion of the heart.

Next add cadmium red in the middle while the paint is still wet so that there's no distinct line separating the two washes. And finally add in purple lake to complete the heart.

Remove the stencil and let dry.

Striped

Make a symmetrical heart on a scrap piece of paper (like we did for wet-on-wet). Cut it out. This time we will use the cut out heart instead of  the stencil.

Place your heart cut-out on a 4"x4" piece of watercolor paper and lightly trace around it with a pencil.

Using a ruler, lightly draw horizontal lines at half inch intervals.

Now comes the fun part...painting the stripes!

You can go with whatever color scheme you like. If you want distinct lines, wait for each color to dry before moving on to next.

You can use these as it is with a personal message on the front/back, adhere it to a card or frame it up.

Get creative and have fun painting!