Swing Scene

I haven't painted a scene with my Art Impressions stamps for a little while, so for this Watercolor Weekend edition, I put together a few of my favourites:

 

I began using the largest hanging swing image from the 5195 - WC Swing Set, colouring it first in my Tombow Dual Brush Marker #565 Deep Blue, stamping it off on scrap paper, and then colouring it again with #879 Brown.  I stamped it onto my Canson XL Watercolour paper.  *Instead of masking, when I coloured the swing, I left an open area in the corner where I intended my bunny to sit.  I've used the bunny from 5016 - WC Mini Critters Set, coloured him up in #N45, and used my stamp positioner to place him where I wanted him.  With my damp #4 brush, I softened the lines of the swing, pulling out the colour to fill in the shaded areas on the wood frames, and between the cushions.

To create my floral vine, I started with one of the smaller twig images from 4964 - WC Branches Set, and colouring it with #879, I stamped it numerous times, in different directions, creating the flow of the vine.  Using the trailing foliage stamps from 5126 - WC Foliage Set 4 coloured in #177 Dark Jade, I stamped the greenery along the same path, winding it around the swing frame in first & second generation.  Before stamping the flowers, I softened the images with my damp brush.  Using the Daisy Bunch from Flower Set - 4052, I coloured a few of the blooms in #993 Chrome Orange, and created the yellow floral sprays around the base of the swing, stamping them in a cluster.  I filled in any open areas with the tiny dot flowers from 5009 - WC Mini Flower Set coloured in #533 Peacock Blue, and then I added clusters of them along the twisting vine - then touched all the flowers with a damp brush.  I used the fine point end of my #993 marker to draw in the stripes on the seat cushions.  The bunny got a touch of #850 Blush in his ear, and I used a fine tip black marker to define & darken his eyes & nose.

On my palette, I scribbled #992 Sand and picked it up with a wet brush to add colour to the wood frames, keeping it streaky to suggest a wood grain pattern.  I did the same with #565 Deep Blue, and used this to add shadows where needed to the swing, bunny, cushions and under the swing.  Using the smaller mountain stamp in 5198 - WC Mountain Set, I selectively coloured it in #533, omitting the largest peak, and used my stamp positioner to place it in the background.  Then using my brush and picking up colour from the palette, I used #565 to paint in the mountains and sky, and #177 to add a grassy hillside.  Since some of my twigs were 2nd generation, they were a little too light, so I went in directly with my fine Twintone Chocolate marker to darken them up.  I diecut my scene with a stitched square die, and mounted it on a dark brown cardstock.  The sentiment is from 5136 - WC Sentiment Set 2, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink, and diecut with a small stitched tag from 5132 - Tag Stitched Dies, and it got a small yellow Baker's Twine bow.  I did some zigzag stitching with my sewing machine on my background papers, and mounted it all onto a 5 1/2" square card.

New Art Impressions Watercolour release!

Oh, yes - it's that time of year again!  Art Impressions is releasing five brand new Ai Watercolor sets over on the blog today, and I am sharing two projects using 5195 WC Swing Set, and 5198 WC Mountain Set:

I had the idea to combine these two sets on my projects, so decided to use the two tire swings, and create a scene behind them.  I first sketched out my idea on scrap paper to determine exactly where I wanted things to be - nothing worse than being half way through a scene like this, and stamping your mountains too high!  It also helped me determine that my tree swing would be up on a hill overlooking a lake and the mountains beyond.  I started by diecutting my Canson XL watercolour paper with the 3 3/4" x 5" Rectangle Double Stitched Die, and I sketched in my tree with a pencil.  Using #N45 Cool Grey 10, I coloured and stamped the tire, and then masked it.  With my stamp positioner, I placed the little girl from 5053 WC Little Girls Set, coloured in #992 Sand.  With my #1 paintbrush, I added #850 Flesh to her skin, and #899 Redwood to her hair.  With the fine point of the #992 marker, I added short sleeves to her t-shirt.  #565 Deep Blue was painted as her jeans, and after adding more water to it, I used it to add shadows.  I added several layers of the N45 to the tire to build up the colour, creating it darker on the underside of it.  Next I stamped the mountains, after colouring them with 2nd generation #565, and a layer of #533 Peacock Blue over top.  I used my damp #4 paintbrush to soften the lines and pull out the colour to add shading to the mountains.  I painted in the hills in front of them, and the lake - pulling the colour from my palette, and used a light wash for the sky.

I used my Twintone marker in #41 Chocolate to outline my tree, and added a few texture lines to the trunk.  I painted shades of #969 Chocolate over the entire tree, keeping it darker on the undersides of the branches, and added #565 as shadows.  With the large leafy image from Foliage Set - 4051 coloured in #158 Dark Olive, I added greenery on either side of the swing, and softened it by dabbing with a damp brush.  I also used the Jumbo Grass stamp with #158 stamping it multiple times, then using the colour from them to paint a suggestion of a grassy bank.  I picked up #992 from my palette and painted in the shore line around the lake.  And finally, to add leaves to the trees, I used the larger leafy image from 4867 - WC Foliage Set 2 New.  Oh - and the last step was to use a fine point grey marker to draw in the chain of the tire swing.  I matted my image with a light kraft cardstock, and used pop dots to mount it on some textured dark grey cardstock.

Now I'm going to share what was my first version of my scene:

While there are some things about it that I'm really happy with (the tree, and the bunny nestled in the grass) - the mountains are just too dark, giving more of a snowy/wintry look that doesn't fit with the scene.

I kept going, adding a fair bit of colour to try to balance out the mountains, but couldn't quite make it work.  I'll still use it as a card for a friend, but it's good to learn from mistakes this way!

Be sure to check out what the other designers have come up with for the new release, and of course you can find all of them to buy over on the Art Impressions website.  Happy stamping!