New Year on the Ai blog

 We're starting a new year of Watercolour Weekend posts!  This is my project that will be on the Art Impressions blog this Saturday.

Even though it's January, I decided to kick off the new year with a big vase filled with tulips.

I coloured the kitten from 4873 - WC Cats Set in Tombow #969/565, stamped it on my Canson XL Watercolor paper, and covered it with a mask.  Using the same markers, I coloured up one of the vases from 5123 - WC Decorative Jar, and stamped it to appear just behind the cat.  The new 5475 - Flower Set 6 has two wonderful tulip stamps, so I used them both, coloured up in #N65 and stamped them repeatedly to fill up my vase.  Starting with a light wash layer, I painted my tulips in #755 and #946, then added layers to make some of the petals darker than others.  The stems and leaves were painted in #126 and #177, and I painted in a few extra leaves to fill in the background a little.  After pulling the colour out of the lines/edges, I painted #373 onto the vase, with a little #565 for shadowing.  I painted stripes of #N65 onto the kitten, darkened them with #565 and added a few tones of #946 to bring out the gold of the tulips.  I finished up by adding the suggestion of a shadow and a background with a wash of what was on my palette.  

I wanted a gingham background to match my vase, so I used a stencil set and some Distress Oxide ink to create my own.  My image was cut out with the 5064 Circle Double Stitched Dies.  Be sure to check out the Ai blog on Saturday to see what Dot & Tricia have to share, too!

Watercolour Bicycle 2.0

I have another Art Impressions Watercolour bike to share today!  When I am painting images for my Watercolour Weekend posts, I often do more than one, switching up the colours a little, maybe positioning the images a little differently, or changing the flowers.  Here's my second card using WC Bicycle Set and WC Cats Set:

 I used pinks and a warmer blue shade in this one, and more of a warm brown kitty.

Bicycle Watercolour

I have my first June Watercolour Weekend post to share today - (it'll be on the Ai blog on June 1st).  It's my first time painting the new-for-2019 #5124 WC Bicycle Set and I've paired it with the #4873 WC Cats Set:

I began by colouring the bicycle with my #N65 Cool Grey Tombow Marker, and stamping it onto my watercolour paper.  I pulled out the colour with a damp #4 brush, leaving more colour where the shadows fall.  I was careful not to colour a portion of the rear tire, leaving a space to stamp my cat with the help of my stamp positioner (also in #N65.) Using the trailing vines from the #5126 WC Foliage Set 4 and my #158 Dark Olive marker, I stamped them several times in the bike's basket without reinking.  With the floral cluster from the #4052 Flower Set, I stamped multiples with #565 Deep Blue in the basket and around the wheels.  From the #5009 WC Mini Flower Set, I used the cluster of tiny flowers, and stamped them into the 2nd basket, using #158 & #565.  Also from the Mini Flower Set, I used the dot cluster in #991 Light Ochre, filling in the basket and around the tires.  I used the tiny foliage stamp with #158 to fill in some greenery, and then used #856 Chinese Red/#158 to add the tall flowers to the basket.  With a damp brush, I dabbed the flowers & greenery, not wanting to lose the definition of the images.

Using the two longer grasses from Foliage Set 4, and the small grass from the #4051 Foliage Set, I added grasses around the tires & cat, and then pulled out the colour with my paintbrush to add a green wash on the ground.  Taking #565 from my palette, I painted in the sky and added shadows to the bike, ground and cat.  I wanted just a touch of colour on the bicycle, so I picked up #515 Light Blue off of my palette and added it to the metal parts.  I used #850 Flesh to add colour directly to the cat's ears.

I die cut my image with a Wonky stitched square die, matted it with dark blue cardstock and adhered it to my base with pop dots.  The final card is 5 3/4" square.