During the Christmas season our family enjoys the beautiful Christmas lights on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. In honor of this tradition I painted some bright colored Christmas lights. With a few simple steps you can paint Christmas lights that glow using transparent watercolors. You can use your design for a Christmas card, scrapbook or journal page or to decorate your home for the holidays.
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How to paint watercolor Christmas lights that glow
Supplies needed
You will need Watercolor Paper, watercolor brush, pencil, black pen, kneaded eraser, a white gel pen, tissue or paper towel and a spray bottle that sprays a fine mist of water. Watercolors: After taking a watercolor class I now use the Daniel Smith Essentials Set (a limited palette) plus a few favorite colors for most of my watercolor projects, but there are times when its nice to premixed colors like the ones found in the Koi Watercolor set.
Instructions
You can draw your own Christmas light bulb template or download mine here.
Practice first
You may want to practice doing a couple light bulbs on scrap paper. When you spray your painted light bulb with water try not to get the whole painting wet. You may want to cover the rest of your painting with a plastic bag or something to protect it. As you paint your light bulbs think about which ones are on the bottom and do those first and let them dry before you do the one on top. The transparent watercolor will the let the bulb that is on the bottom show through. When all the light bulbs are dry add the black ends and connecting wires.
Finishing details
Then go back over each light bulb adding a second glaze of color. Start on the outside of the bulb and brush in making the center of the bulb lighter if possible. Remember to do the bottom bulb first and let it dry before you do the top one. When all the paint is dry use your white gel pen to add the filament to each bulb and a few highlights here and there.
Your watercolor can be a finished painting like this or you can lightly outline the bulbs in black and add a border. Frame it our use it as a journal page or Christmas card.
I’ve been enjoying a watercolor class by Jana Parkin. In our last class she showed us a Christmas book she illustrated called, What Think Ye Of Christmas. This little book would make a nice gift for someone special. I already gave my copy away and need to get a few more. She has a beautiful illustration of Christmas lights in the book and she showed us how she painted it. We did a little practicing in class then I couldn’t wait to get home and start experimenting and create my own design.
How to paint a watercolor Christmas wreath here.
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In August 2020 I started reading online to my grandchildren, who live hundreds of miles away. A few years and over a thousand books later we are still reading together on FaceTime. I created readaloudgrandma.com to help other grandparents that want to have a rewarding experience reading aloud to children they love!
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