I have another custom watercolor to share with you this month! This commission came in after a couple traveled to California and fell in love with Joshua Tree National Park. This painting is based on nighttime photographs I saw online of the park. Joshua Tree is the 10th certified International Dark Sky Park in the U.S. National Park system.
Supplies
MY FAVORITE STOCK PHOTO WEBSITES
Supplies, EntrepreneurPhotography is a key component to branding, marketing, and selling your product. All businesses use high-quality photos to catch the viewer's eye and market their products. Instead of spending countless hours (and money) styling and prepping for all the photos you need, stock photos are an effective way to add a professional polish to your products and brand. Professional images can be costly but there are a lot of online resources that offer free, beautiful stock photos. Here are my favorite websites that offer free (or inexpensive), professional stock photos.
ITHACA SUMMER WEDDING
Design, Entrepreneur, Watercolor, Supplies, WeddingThe most wonderful bride-to-be contacted me through my Etsy site last summer and asked if I could design some custom pieces for her summer 2016 wedding in Ithaca, New York. Over the course of a year we worked together to create multiple items to help bring her wedding day together. See photos from the wedding here!
STARTING YOUR OWN ETSY SHOP: PART II
Entrepreneur, Tutorial, Etsy Shop, SuppliesLast week my financial planner, Julie Ford of Ford Financial Solutions, broke down some of the financial elements related to starting your own Etsy shop. This week, I'll build on Julie's advice and walk you through what it cost to start Paper by JLee.
WATERCOLOR TUTORIAL: NIGHT SKY
Tutorial, Watercolor, SuppliesSometimes I get custom watercolor requests (which I love) and recently an old friend asked me to create a custom painting based on a John Donne poem, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." After reading the poem I was inspired to paint a night sky and the goal was a dark and beautiful sky (think evening a storm is rolling in) overlaid with the image you get when you take a long shutter-speed photo of the stars. I've published a post dedicated to the creative process behind the painting but, for now, I'll just share a few tips about how to paint the sky I created for this painting.