inspiration monday

i have always been inspired by carla sonheim's artwork.  as the queen-of-silly, she has the most wonderful ability to find whimsical little creatures hidden just about anywhere, even in sidewalk cracks!  but if you're like me and don't have too many sidewalks in your area, i've come up with another way you can go about creating an "inspiration splotch" with some watercolor paper, watercolor, paintbrushes, waxed paper, your favorite pens and markers, pencils, and a jug of water.
(i'm using some turquoise watercolor and a yellow watercolor crayon in my moleskine journal)

first,  lay down some clean water onto your paper and then add your watercolor.....
you want your color(s) to be fairly wet.

now lay a piece of waxed paper on top of your watercolor.....
rub your hand across it to smoosh the color around.

lift the waxed paper to reveal the splotch underneath.  if you have any droplets of watercolor left on the waxed paper, you can tap them back onto your watercolor splotch for some added texture!

now take a good look at your watercolor splotch.
see anything hidden in there?

if you don't see much the first time,  you might have more luck
by turning your paper around another way.

once you've spied something, start adding some details using your favorite markers....
(i've used pitt artist pens)

once you get started, it's hard to stop......

but before you know it, you've revealed your very own
imaginary inspiration monster!  have fun!


{this creature-from-the-art-lagoon was created in my moleskine journal using cotman watercolor, lyra watercolor crayon, paintbrush, pitt artist pens, uniball signo white gel pen, waxed paper, 3B and 8B pencils}