Today I experimented with an idea I had to make little watercolor paintings using people’s first names. As two of my kids were home with me today, I used their names for my trial run. I started with Leif, a nice short name that fit easily on the playing card sized watercolor, hot press paper I used. I made some bright red flowers that I thought he’d like and used the straight line of the ‘L’ to inspire a white picket fence in the background. I thought it turned out well and my son approved.

For my second attempt I used my daughter’s full first name on some cold press watercolor bookmark paper I had from a Sketchbox earlier this summer. My daughter loves to read and is leaving for college next week, so hopefully she will find the bookmark helpful. She loves mushrooms so I used a variety of mushroom shapes and colors for her name art. She really liked it, so I consider this a successful experiment.

I’ll make one for my husband this weekend, but he says he wants his name to be clearly visible once finished. I have an idea for his, but I’m not sure how it would look if I use a bold pen for his name. I’ll have to think about it a bit. If you are local to the metro Detroit area, take 94 to 12 mile, turn east and Grant is the third street after 94 on the right. We will be right in the front yard- there will be a tent up due to the possibility of rain. Stop by and I’ll make you a name painting.

In what way can you use your name, or the idea of names, as inspiration for your creativity today?