Anthropologie Hack: Watercolor Art

Afternoon, all! I’m writing you today from the patio – at an actual table and chairs! What?! I’m so excited to finally have patio furniture on which to lounge, work, and eat. And the best part is that we didn’t even have to buy it! My husband’s parents generously let us long-term borrow their current set, which wasn’t getting much use at their house. Nate and I spent a good hour scrubbing it down and now it’s clean as a whistle and ready to party! (You can see my succulent planter on the table!)His parents were also SUPER generous and went in over half on a brand new grill as a house-warming present, which hubby is in love with. Time to throw some shrimp on the barbie! I’m also super stoked because I have a pot of cilantro and a pot of poppies that I thought I would plant and they are finally growing! I’m glad they are flourishing and that I haven’t killed them… yet.

Anyway, on to the craft post for today: an easy Anthropologie hack for watercolor art. My original inspiration came from these photos:

I was really struck by the simplistic beauty of the watercolor strokes and the visual interest they sparked when grouped together in a gallery setting. Later I realized that the actual Anthropologie listing is for the enamel frames (which run up to $68.00 a pop; ouch) but I still thought that the watercolor art could be a cool and easy project that anyone can do. That’s the beauty of this project – you don’t need any art skills at all to do it! It’s also a super relaxing project – I sat on the porch and worked away without any worries about perfection and it felt good! Now on to the tutorial 🙂

Watercolor Art Materials

– Watercolor set (I had one as a gift from my MIL, but any set will work, even Crayola!)

– Paintbrushes in varied sizes

– Cup of Water

– Watercolor Paper (think thick and textured)

– Clipboard or hard surface

– Masking Tape

Step 1

Excuse the fuzzy picture! Take your watercolor paper and tape it to your work surface or clipboard. I used mini-clipboards that I got at Staples for like $2 each. I cut my paper down to fit the clipboard for mini artwork and then used some masking tape to hold down the edges. This is so your paper doesn’t curl up and warp when it gets wet!

Step 2

Paint away! There is no real rhyme or reason to this part – just do what feels right! Experiment with different brush sizes and with the amount of water that’s on your brush. Less water = darker and richer colors, and more water = a more watery and light look. For this first piece I just did a bunch of colors and varied the lengths and heights of my lines. My first one ended up looking like this:

Step 3

Do another one! For my next clipboard I experimented with an ombre effect and keeping the lines within color families. I only did 3 lines this time and I stepped up the chunkiness! Repeat for the last clipboard. Try turning the paper horizontally and doing the lines in different directions! Again, don’t worry about perfection – even if your lines aren’t straight it just adds to the character!

Here are my 3 finished Anthropologie hack watercolor art clipboards!

I love how they turned out! I really think they looked great on the clilpboards, so I decided that that was what I was going to hang them with instead of putting them in frames. One of the bathrooms in my house was just screaming for a little color, so these babies went in there and instantly brightened up the space! What do you think?

What are some other Anthropologie pieces that you would like to see hacked?