September Watercolour Weekend

I am on the Art Impressions blog today!

It's September, which means it's fall card making season!  I painted up an image I'd never used before - this is 5593 - Harvest Scenes Set.  

I stamped the image with Tombows #969/565, leaving off the bottom edge of the smaller pumpkin.  I used my stamp positioner to place the leaves from 5598 - Harvest Set, and the squirrel from 5599 - Mini Mice and Squirrel Set as well.  I stuck to a simple colour palette - using #312 on the pot and smaller pumpkin, adding layers to achieve the darker areas.  For the orange pumpkin, I started with #933 in several layers, then added #947 to deepen the shadows.  After pulling the colour out of the lines on the ladder, I used shades of #969, keeping it fairly light, as I wanted a weathered looking wooden ladder - then added touches of #947 and #565 for shadows.  A combination of #947 and 969 was used on both the bird and squirrel.

For the flowers spilling out of the pot, I used 5475  - WC Flower Set 6, in #312/177 and then the small circle of V shaped flowers from 4868 - WC Flower Set 2 was used with #847.  For the leaves, I painted splotches of #173/947/312/993/847.  With the small grass from 4052 Foliage Set and #177, I created the little hill behind the pumpkin and other images, then painted it out with my brush, dragging the colour out as a wash of grass.  I used my Twintone markers to add a few details back in, as well as to darken the eyes... then added a few dots around my scene.

The sentiment from 5797 - Little Things Sentiment Set is stamped in Versafine Onyx Black, and the background paper is from 5838 - Fall PP.

My second September project is actually a set of cards using the newly released 5917 - Floral Bouquet Set.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the colours I've used, as I started painting these a couple of months ago, and didn't note everything down!  We'll talk more about concepts.  I initially just wanted to paint up these pretty new flowers, putting each of them in a container - and realized that I had the makings of a sweet card set to gift someone.  One way to create a card set is to do matching colours and papers, but since I had painted each bouquet in different (not necessarily coordinating) colours,  I used the card design to tie them together.  After painting, I used a postage die to cut them all out, then added a different sentiment from 5797 - Little Things Sentiment Set to each one using Versafine Onyx Black ink.  They were matted on a slightly larger piece of Canson XL Watercolour paper, and a piece of dark grey cardstock that was just 1/16" larger - and adhered with 3D foam adhesive.  The background papers are a bit of a mixed bag, but in this case, I kept in mind that the cards are going to be given out individually, so I focussed more on each background working with each painting, not that all four cards matched each other.  Details for each are below:

Thinking of You - Container is from 5123 - WC Decorative Jar Set, paper is 5892 - Easter S2PP.  You'll see on each painting that I've added colour around the base to 'ground' the container, as well as added a shadow of it.

One Day at a Time - Container is from 5923 - Farmhouse Container Set, paper is 5873 - Mini Birthday PP.  Look closely at the jug, and you'll see that I like to add touches of other colours when I'm painting containers.  I feel that it ties in the scene as a whole, and shiny containers always pick up reflections of items that are around them.

Just a Little Note - Container is from 5923 - Farmhouse Container Set, paper is 5892 - Easter S2PP.  This one is little!  But I love the idea of flowers in a teacup.  The yellow of the cup was quite a strong contrast to the purple/pink flowers, so I brought a little of the pink into the teacup as well, and added a darker ground to balance it out a bit.

Sending a Little Hello - Container is from 5123 - WC Decorative Jar Set, paper is 5892 - Easter S2PP.  I took my time shading between the petals on this one, as the image is very delicate, and the details really matter!

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!

Back to Basics

  I'm going back to basics this week with a classic container of flowers for Art Impressions Watercolour Weekend.  These are great cards to keep on hand - leave off the sentiment, and add it in when you need to send a thank you, birthday or thinking of you card:

I began by inking up the pitcher from 5123 - WC Decorative Jar Set in Tombow Dual Brush Marker #N45 Cool Grey 10, and pulled out the colour with my damp paintbrush, concentrating it on the undersides of the rounded image.  For my bouquet, I started with the greenery, using #158 Dark Olive and the two trailing foliage stamps in 5126 - WC Foliage Set 4.  My flowers are all from Flower Set - 4052, and I used the Daisy Bunch in #743 Hot Pink, the Salvia in #565 Deep Blue and the Mini Foxglove in #676 Royal Purple.  To fill in where there were holes or white areas, I used the tiny green from 5009 - WC Mini Flower Set in #126 Light Olive, which added a little brightness.

After lightly touching my stamped images with a damp brush, I picked up a few of the colours to add shading to the pitcher - mainly #565 for shadows, and a touch of #676 for a bit of a pink reflection.  I die cut the image and layered it over an ink blended panel of the same tones.  The sentiment is from the Hydrangea Exclusive set available from Scrapbook.com.  Lastly, I picked up some black ink from my palette, and lightly spattered it across my card.

A Vintage Shoe for Watercolor Weekend

Art Impressions came out with this wonderful shoe stamp set in their watercolor line last summer, and this is the first time that I've put it to use!  I've paired one of the vintage shoes with a teapot, and went very girly with the colours that I chose.  Here's what you'll see on the Ai blog this Saturday:

Today I'm using the 5194 - WC Shoe Set, along with 5123 - WC Decorative Jar Set.  I coloured my shoe with my Tombow Dual Brush Marker #565 Deep Blue, and went over it with #N57 Warm Grey 5.  I stamped it on my Canson XL Watercolor paper, and then pulled out the colour with with a damp #4 paintbrush.  I concentrated the colour in the areas where the shadows are strongest - under the arch, the heel and under the rolled top edge.

I've used two of the flower images from 4761 - Watering Can, starting off by colouring just the bloom of the hydrangea-like image with #533 Peacock Blue, and stamping it multiple times.  After cleaning, I stamped it several more times coloured with #991 Light Ochre.  Using the multi-bloom image, I coloured the flowers with #772 Blush, and the stem in #312 Holly Green.  With the tiny foliage stamp from 5009 - WC Mini Flower Set, I stamped it repeatedly in #312, filling in spaces, and allowing the greenery to spill out the sides.  After dabbing the flowers with my damp brush, I went in directly with the fine point of my #312 marker, darkening some areas, drawing in leaves on the tall flowers, and adding dots around the bouquet.  I did the same with the other markers, adding shading to all of the blooms.

After masking off the shoe & flowers, I used my #4774 stamp positioner to stamp the teapot slightly higher, so that it would appear to be tucked in behind the shoe, colouring it in #565 and #N57 again.  I pulled out the colour with my damp brush, concentrating the colour close to the shoe where it would be in shadow, and on the undersides of the teapot, keeping in mind that it is quite curved, so I wanted to leave some white area.  After scribbling some #565 onto my palette, I picked it up with a wet brush and painted in the suggestion of a background, and a few sideways strokes to indicate the surface they're sitting on.  I also added the blue to the shaded areas of the shoe and teapot to deepen the shadows.  I added just a touch of the blush colour to the background and teapot to look like reflections.  The Decorative Jar set includes 3 small images that you can use to embellish the containers, so I stamped a swirly one onto the teapot using #533.  To finish things off, I used the 5062 Rounded Rectangle A2 Double Stitched dies to cut out my scene, then matted it with a periwinkle blue cardstock and used 3D Pop dots to adhere it to my background.  I tied some pink organdy ribbon under the image and tied it in a bow, and added a few tiny pearls.