how to fake art skills

When I was little I wanted to be an artist when I grew up... until I realized I had no artistic ability; honestly, toddlers can draw better stick figures than I can. I can't even draw a circle freehand or draw a straight line. However, as I've gotten older I've figured out little tricks to fake some mad art skills, or, at least make it so that people don't look at what I do and say something like, "Oh, how cute! Your 2 year old is so talented!" I'm going to share one of those tricks with you today. To do so we gotta go old school, or actually, more like pre-school.
Let's trace.

Did you know that your computer screen makes a great lightbox? I wanted some art for my little Miss' room so I found a picture of an Alice in Wonderland dress online and traced the image onto some plain ol' computer paper.
When you're finished tracing your image flip your paper over and scribble over the entire backside.

Then flip it over again, place the computer paper over a sheet of watercolor paper, and retrace your lines with a ball point pen. After you're finished the watercolor paper will have a duplication of your image on it that will look like you sketched it yourself. Get ready to watercolor...

Make sure you remember to use shading and mix colors so your art work has some dimension. I admit I was a little heavy-handed with the grey on the collar and apron but I'm still pretty happy with the result. Plus I already had everything I needed so this cost me $0. :)



 

And {here} was my inspiration: