Glitter Landscapes - from guest blogger Diana Perez

Glitter Landscapes - from guest blogger Diana Perez

The days are longer and the sun shines brighter. Summer is fast approaching which means vacation time is right around the corner for some of us. And from the time I write this, I’m only hours away from going on vacation to West Texas.

My name is Diana and I am a watercolor artist. I graduated college with a Bachelor's degree in fine arts in 2019 and I now teach art to elementary aged children. You can find my art on Instagram (@dianalaper), where I post most of my paintings. My body of work is very colorful and is greatly influenced by nature but specially deserts. Deserts are magical places to me and I enjoy trying to capture their magical essence through my paintings. Something that makes it possible for me to do that is using glitter watercolors from The Smiling Hippo.

Since I’m going to visit the West Texas desert in a few days, I’m going to share some ideas on how you can use glitter watercolors to paint a desert landscape. Or a landscape of any kind for that matter. Glitter watercolors are a fun and easy way to make your paintings feel magical and immersive. There are also multiple ways in which you can incorporate glitter into your paintings. For example, you can use pops of glitter on certain areas of your painting that you wish to highlight, or you can use glitter for the whole painting and have your work sparkle. Personally, I like to do a bit of both.

One way in which I incorporate glitter into my work is by painting a sunrise or a sunset. The Smiling Hippo has many beautiful gold, copper, and bronze colors that can be used to paint the sun rays that illuminate the big bright sky. But you don’t have to be limited to just earthy colors. In fact, both sunrise and sunsets can occasionally feature beautiful pinks and purples alongside the yellow orange colors. So if you’d like for your painting to be colorful, don’t hesitate to bring out all the glittery pinks, purples, and oranges when painting skies. The glitter will make your sky appear illuminated and vibrant, just like a real sunset and sunrise.

Another way in which I like to incorporate glitter into my paintings is to use a blue or dark purple glitter watercolor to paint a night sky. That way the glitter from the paints will shimmer and look just like twinkling stars. So next time you feel like creating a magical night sky, try using some glitter paints. That way your sky can sparkle bright. And hey, maybe you could even try using Unicorn, a watercolor pan from The Smiling Hippo that features not just glitter but glitter sparkles! That way you can really have shimmering stars in your sky.

Lastly, don’t forget to use glitter paints to highlight certain areas of your painting. For example, when I paint cacti I like to use a shimmery yellow green color to paint the side of the cactus that is being illuminated by the sun.

So there you have it, a few ways in which you can incorporate glitter watercolors into your landscapes. I hope that you decide to try out some of these ideas next time you work on a landscape. Until next time!

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