Exclusive Cherry Set for Watercolor Weekend

I am using the lovely Art Impressions Exclusive Cherry Set available from Scrapbook.com today!

I began by stamping my image onto some smooth watercolour paper (the paint doesn't move around quite as much, but gave me a bit more control of where my colour went).  Using my Tombow Dual Brush Marker in #837 Wine Red, I painted the cherries in layers, starting with a fairly pale wash, leaving plenty of white areas to give them a shiny appearance.  After several layers of #837, I wanted the shadows to be darker still, so I went over the darkest areas with #899 Redwood - which is a dark brown colour.  I painted the branch and cherry stems with #992 Sand, then added touches of #991 Light Ochre for a little warmth.  

I kept in mind that the undersides of leaves are always paler, so I painted those areas with a wash of #126 Light Olive.  The rest of the leaves were painted with #177 Dark Jade, and I added several layers of the colour, keeping it concentrated along the veins.  I used a wash of #565 Deep Blue to paint in my sky (it's much stronger than it shows in the photo!), and then I used #565 to add shadows to the branch, leaves and cherries.  The sentiment is from the Daisy Exclusive Set, stamped in Onyx Black Versafine ink.  I die cut my scene, then matted in on green cardstock and adhered it onto my patterned paper background.