Cottages - Watercolour Weekend

I really love painting scenes with Art Impressions Watercolor stamps... and I especially love all the cottages and cabins that Bonnie brought out last year.  I've paired up one of them from 4958 - WC Cottages Set (this is SO typical of historic cottages in my area), with the footbridge from the just released 5122 - WC Bridge Set, inking them both with Tombow #969 Chocolate:

Using the smaller tree from 5010 WC Tree Set 1, I stamped it several times on each side of the cottage with my #969, then softened all the lines with a damp #4 paintbrush, pulling out the colour on the tree trunks, and on the footbridge. I coloured my #177 Dark Jade marker onto the tiny foliage sprig in the 5009 WC Mini Flower Set, stamping it repeatedly to get 2nd & 3rd generation foliage in the trees, and creating shrubs around the house.  Also from the Mini Flower Set - I used my #533 Peacock Blue to colour the tiny floral cluster (it looks like dots!) stamping it around the shrubs to suggest purpley/blue flowers.  Dabbing at them with my damp brush softened the images, and intensified the colours.

I initially drew the tufts of grass directly with my #076 Green Ochre marker, but since it is quite a yellow/green, my scene had a bit of a fall feel to it, and I was aiming for spring!  So I picked up the #177 green off of my palette, and painted a wash of green grass, darkening up the grasses directly with the marker as well.  I painted the pathway with #992 Sand, and added #491 Glacier Blue onto the roof & door.  I painted a touch of #856 Chinese Red onto the chimney, then went in with the fine point of it to sketch in the bricks.  I picked up #565 Deep Blue with my brush to paint in the stream, and then added the shadows to the windows, pathway, around the house & trees, and finally painted in the sky.

With my scene complete, I always walk away for a few hours (days?) and come back with a fresh eye.  I wanted to darken things up a little, so I went back in with both my 177 and 565 markers, adding grasses and flowers in the deeper tones.