Stars & Stripes | Patriotic Painting Project

Karla Dornacher is one of my favorite artists. She has such a fun and whimsical style with beautiful color combinations. Plus, her designs just lift my soul and help me turn my art endeavors into a form of worship. 

This year to celebrate the 4th of July holiday she posted this wonderful coloring page on her blog and invited us all to download it and color it ourselves. (If you hurry you can download it for free until July 5th.)

In her original piece Karla used a combination of colored pencils. I had already been working on a different patriotic piece and had a palette of acrylic paint out on my paint table so I decided to just use what I had. 

I printed out two copies of the pattern. The first I printed on regular drawing paper so I can give the colored pencils a try later on. I'm pretty new to colored pencils but I'm enjoying the learning curve. 

On her website Karla gives a list of the colored pencils that she used. I found this very helpful because I love her color choices!

I also printed a copy of the pattern on watercolor paper so I could paint it with what I was already working on. I used DecoArt Americana Acrylic paints for my palette and used a watercolor technique. I like to do that when I'm working with a pen & ink type of project.

Here's the details for my version:

Palette

DecoArt Americana Acrylic Paint

Blues - Victorian Blue (basecoat), Deep Midnight Blue (shade), Turquoise Blue (highlight), Whispering Turquoise (stars and added highlights)

Whites - Light Buttermilk (basecoat), Raw Sienna (shade), Warm White (highlight)

Reds - Country Red (basecoat), Napa Red (shade), Red Alert (highlight)

Angel's Skin - Flesh Tone and shade with Raw Sienna

Brushes

Loew-Cornell

7020 LaCornelle Round #4

7400 LaCornelle Angle Shader 1/4

I use a bubble palette with 1 drop of paint to 3-4 drops of water. This thins down the paint and allows the line work to show thru. I shade and highlight at full strength. 

When I finally decide that I'm finished with it. (I'm still debating on some additional details.) I'll mist it with a coat of Krylon #1311 Matte Finish Spray. 

There you have it friends. Go download your own copy and get to creating! Karla would love it if you would share your art. Tag her (@karladornacher) and use #starsandstripescoloring so we can all see it.

Happy 4th of July!