New Ai Simple Scene

Time for another Watercolour Weekend on the Art Impressions blog.  

Today I was inspired by all of the beautiful canyons in photos I've seen of Utah, where the rivers run through the striking scenery.  Here is the new 5525 - WC SW Simple Scene:

I stamped all of my images in N57 (Warm Grey 5) onto my Canson XL Watercolor paper.  Starting with the simple scene, and then using my Stamp Positioner, I added a mountain from 5198 - WC Mountain Set, the cacti from 5520 - WC SW Village and 5196 - WC Desert Set, then added rocks to the foreground from 5414 - WC Small Rocks Set.  I added layers of colour to the rocks and ground using #947/992/969, and added shadows using #569/565.  The sky and water were painted with #493, and the river was shaded with #565.  I used #098/126/565 on the cacti, and finally added touches of #493 and a little #703 to brighten things up a little.  The sentiment is from 5136 - WC Sentiment Set 2.  I used the 5062 Rounded Rectangle dies, and mounted it to my base with some 3D foam adhesive, and added a few sparkly jems.

Be sure to check out the Ai blog this Saturday to see what Dot & Tricia have to share for the Watercolour Weekend.

A Little Southwestern Watercolour Weekend

I have a Southwestern scene to share this week for Art Impressions' Watercolour Weekend!  

For most of my cards (but especially this one!) I like to plan them out on scrap paper ahead of time.  I usually sit down in front of the TV and design a whole bunch of cards, planning the layout, the stamp sets and even colours/paper if I can.  I don't like to just sit down in front of a blank piece of watercolor paper and try to start stamping - I find I'm much more productive if I have a sketch and a plan.  Here's what my sketches look like:

With my sketch beside me, I planned out what the cactus cluster was going to look like on scrap paper, mixing and matching stamps, and trying out colours to get it just right.  I started stamping it on Bristol Smooth Watercolor paper from the bottom up, using the rock cluster from 4763 Southwest, colouring them in my Tombow Dual Brush Marker #N55 Cool Grey 7, then I added the smaller stones from 5196 WC Desert Set in #947 Burnt Sienna.  I masked the stones, and stamped the prickly cactus from 4763 Southwest in #228 Grey Green, masked it - and stamped the spiky greenery in #312 Holly Green.  With all of the masks in place, I added the larger cactus from 5196 WC Desert Set in #177 Dark Jade in the background.

I put my watercolor paper into my Misti, along with the frame from 5269 Wood Frames Set from the Bible Journaling line.  I coloured about 3/4 of the frame with #969 Chocolate - just enough to stamp the left side of the frame.  Then I repositioned my paper, moving it about 1/2" to the left and coloured the portion to the right of the cacti, and stamped it.  I did this to make the frame longer than it is, about 1/2" extra so that I could fit the scene in the background.  I used the smaller rock formation from the 5198 WC Mountain Set coloured in #947, stamping it in the upper left, and after masking the frame, a portion of it in the lower right.  I stamped the tiny rocks from 5196 Desert Set around the base of the mountains several times in #947.

Now that the stamping was done, I finally grabbed my #4 paintbrush, and pulled the colour out of all the images, concentrating it in areas where the shadows would be, and leaving plenty of white highlight areas.  I purposely kept the frame very streaky, adding warmer and darker browns to achieve a worn wood effect.  The river was painted in with #565 Deep Blue, picking it up off my palette, and then using it to add shadows in the mountain crevices and on the rocks & cacti.  I added touches of #676 Royal Purple all over my painting to liven it up a bit!  Finally the sky was added with #493 Reflex Blue, and I added touches of it to my scene as well.  I die cut my painting with a 5063 Rectangle A2 Double Stitched die, matted it with kraft cardstock and adhered it to my base with some thin 3D adhesive.  A few sequins finished it off. *I had intended to hand write a sentiment just below the frame - but chickened out at the thought of maybe messing it up after all my hard work!  I may think about it a little longer and add it in... 
Before I painted today's card, I actually did a "Pacific Northwest" version using a pine tree & mountains:

 I created my tree with the WC Tree Set 2, added a few rocks around the base, and a touch of grass.

 I used the twig frame in the Frames set, using the same method of stamping and moving my cardstock before stamping the right side.  I used the other mountains in the mountain set to stamp my scene in the frame, and painted the rest in with my brush.

A Southwestern Watercolor Weekend

I am using two of the newest sets in the Art Impressions Watercolor line this week to create a couple of Southwestern scenes:

 I am just going to go through the steps to create my oval image today, and I began by cutting out the 5065 Double Stitched Oval Die from my Canson XL Watercolor paper.  I chose the large flat-topped mountain image from 5198 WC Mountain Set, coloured it with my #969 Chocolate Tombow Dual Brush marker, and stamped it slightly right of center, in the top third of my oval.  Since I wanted this to look like more of a ranch scene, I chose one of the buildings from 4962 WC Rustic Cabins Set.  I coloured it in #565 Deep Blue, stamped it off, and coloured #969 over top of it before stamping onto my paper.  With #177 Dark Jade, I coloured and stamped two of the cacti from 5196 WC Desert Set in the foreground, masking each one as I went along.  Then I chose the fence from 4807 Old Barn Mini Set, and used my stamp positioner to place it where I wanted, stamping it in #969 over the masked cacti.  I added the small rock image from the Desert Set in and around the cabin, fence and cacti, as well as the larger rock image from 4763 Southwest set, all in #969.

With all of my images in place, I used my damp #4 paintbrush to pull out the colour in the mountains, keeping the crevices darkest, and spreading the brown down the mountain.  I did the same to the fence and rocks, spreading the brown pigment onto the ground, and creating shadows.  For the cabin, I used #N57 Warm Grey 5 to add a weathered wood look to the walls, using my #1 paintbrush to also paint the suggestion of individual boards.  I picked up #899 Redwood from my palette, and added a red/brown shade to the door and chimney.  I pulled the green out of the cacti with my brush, keeping the top edges of them light or white as a highlighted area.  

Now I scribbled some #565 Deep Blue onto my palette, using it to paint in the sky, add shadows to the mountain, cabin, fence and rocks, keeping in mind that the sun was setting on the right side of my image.  I used the fine point of my #565 marker to add shadow lines directly to both cacti, and on a few other areas of my scene.  I also used the fine point of #991 Light Ochre to draw small yellow lines on the top edges of the cacti, to add a sunny glow to the highlighted areas.  Lastly, I picked up #636 Imperial Purple from my palette, adding touches of colour to the sky, mountains and shadows, which really helped the scenes from becoming too 'brown'.  I matted my images on some warm brown cardstock, and adhered them to my patterned paper with pop dots.

There will be another Watercolor Weekend post on the Art Impressions blog on Saturday, so be sure to check it out to see what Tricia and Dot have created this week!