Hi everybody! My name is Katherine Knapik. I’m a professional illustrator, long-time watercolor artist, and lover of things that sparkle! You can find me on instagram @kknapikart, but today I’m going to be doing a little bit of a challenge: painting only with Smiling Hippo glitter watercolors!
For this piece, I did a drawing with archival ink first, and then taped off little squares to only get the color on certain parts of the drawing. Some of the squares got regular watercolor, but to create some emphasis, I wanted to do one section with just glitter watercolors!
I mostly used one of these fabulous glitter mini-palettes for this challenge, along with some samples I’ve received from past orders that I’m not sure about the names of. This pinky-gold color from the mini palette was absolutely perfect for the inside of my streetlamp: there is a light pigment in there in addition to the glitter, so it is absolutely gorgeous on this light glowing glass.
This section also had some sky and foliage so we’re moving into green and blue here! I used two different sample colors I have that are more shimmery rather than glittery for the first layer, and then layered more intense chunky glitters from the mini palette on top.
These paints work so well even without a base layer of traditional watercolor paint, and make the perfect statement contrasting with the matte finish of the rest of my illustration. Here’s the finished work!