ORIGINAL HAND CREATED ART. DON'T BE AFRAID OF COLOR❣️

End of June Art Push

Blog by Shelley Aliaga, Orlando artist and illustrator.

JULY 2026

Shelley Aliaga

7/1/20262 min read

Still shaking from the fire alarm going off 2 minutes ago. Fortunately, it stopped. Relief. I have been really focused on getting more art out. The piece above is today's art. I had it in my head yesterday. I created the leaves last night. I used a wet on wet technique. This means I sprits the paper, with clamps to keep it from warping. Then I used gouache, which is fine, but experience says watercolor spreads more, an effect I personally really like. But I am out of watercolor pans right now. I need to order them online, because it is a brand name I prefer, Prang,

I used a regular ink pen, no India ink, or the kind that is waterproof. I normally use waterproof if I am coloring over the black ink. I was a bit lazy with this, and didn't. Because of that, when I painted over the lines, they bled. I don't really care, because gouache flows over it, and covers well. If you don't know, I use an inexpensive gouache from FiveBelow. I really like it, and, honestly, it works great, and the colors are beautiful, I got the small gouache for $5.00, and the expanded large palette for $10. The small palette has darker colors, green, blue, black and red. The large is mostly deep pastels.

When I painted the tree, I. used a light color, caramel, and then went over with my Inktense by Derwent watercolor pencils set. I used the brown for shadows and contrast. It looks really good. I am pleased.

I have posted the ACEOs I've done, but only the first collection. I am close to finishing the third collecion. It is focused on red and blue, and shades of those colors. I am going to post to Etsy, too. I will post the second collection there. Not sure where the third will be, but it will be linked under the ACEO page. That is a direct link to eBay.com . As I put them in more places, I will create a dedicated ACEO page here.

Thanks for stopping by, and keep checking in for the latest art. Don't forget, I have a Patreon page. Check it out.