Watercolor Tricks

After two attempts I was finally able to make a watercolor class with my fabulous upline. (My foiled attempts were because of dental work which resulted in a bit of discomfort.)

I purchased the watercolor pencils as soon as they were released last year. I just love playing with those pencils, along with aqua painters and blender pens. And there are so many stamps and papers that lend themselves to use with those tools.

In my class I learned two ways to lay down color for two different looks.

I think it is instinctual to color lightly with the pencils - fear of breaking the points and the well known rule 'you can always add color, but you can't take it away.'  So when I was instructed to color heavy, I re-colored several times.

The bottom, vivid image was stamped in Archival Black ink on watercolor paper and then colored with pencils - darker colors out to lighter on the tips of the petals. The object was to lay down thick color. Then, the image was spritzed with water, allowing that thick coloring to bleed. The result was stunning!

I will layer this on a slightly larger layer of Basic Black cardstock and then onto a card base of Rich Razzleberry!

Did you notice that small scrap of white paper in with my pencils, which I store in a  thin stamp case?  It was used as a palette - I colored, heavily, a circle of Calypso Coral. Then I used an aqua painter to pick up just a bit of the color - that light shade provided the perfect skin tone for the Beautiful You gal dancing in the water - top card! It really is just a kiss of peach - you'll have to take my word for it - try it!

I put down a circle of Bermuda Bay and again used an aqua painter to pick up the color and paint a thin shadow line around the gal - neat effect.

I am going to spend more time with these two techniques!!

Who Doesn't Like to Play in Water?

It seems universal, children love to play in the water, for the most part.

The water hose, washing the car, watering the plants, water fountains, a stream, the ocean, the bath tub (except for washing hair), swimming pools ... and now there are children's play fountains in parks and gardens and amusement venues.

I could fill this blog with pictures of my children and grandchildren playing in the water. My water play was in a ringed plastic wading pool or in the sprinkler, but not in the front yard! Mama would not have children in bathing suits in the front yard!

Play for me today is water and ink!

I truly love the watercolor options that Stampin' Up! has given us: aqua painters, watercolor pencils, watercolor paper, shimmery white card stock ... they can make an artist out of any of us.

Although there is nothing really hard about ink and water, first attempts may not result in what was anticipated. Like water, sometimes you must go with the flow. I have read many blogs and viewed videos to glean tips that may produce my desired effects.

Aqua painters and markers is probably as close to controlled as you can get with the watercoloring techniques. On the top left card I scribbled Stampin' Write markers in three colors and then painted with water right over them - using an aqua painter.

I found this card and the alluring blog title "Three Step Watercolor Wash" from Natalie Lapakko/stampwitch.blog.  She very succinctly instructed to  1. scribble colors, 2. apply water from aqua painter and 3. splatter water from aqua painter onto colored area (to create bubbles, texture, interest) and blot with paper towel.

AND it worked. First time! I  love it when things work the first time around!!

She also used a bit of the new Copper Trim for accent; I used some to ground the piece, almost like sandy shore, I suppose. The ribbon can be stretched out to suggest fishing nets, chicken coop wire, sand ...

Not only did I enjoy creating this, but the gals in my classes did as well. Thanks Natalie!

I used the Shimmery White Cardstock for that art piece. And then moved onto Stampin' Up!'s Watercolor Paper for the canvas sling beach chair in the card on the right, a design by Mary Brown at stampercamper.com.

I found the SU watercolor paper too thick and textured for stamping, so switched over to the Shimmer White again.

The watercolor background was created with one of our acrylic blocks ~ ink the block up with several beachy colors (all at once), spritz with water, stamp it onto the paper. HOLD block down, or weight it down for a bit so that color is absorbed into the paper. Pulling the block up immediately causes the water and colors to run downhill like a mudslide. Thank you Mary for that advice!! I had previously produced many mudslides and decided that I could not handle this technique.

I will say that I continued working with my initial stamped image on the the heavy SU watercolor paper. I added a little color with markers, added water with the aqua painter and I like the result, but I did not try stamping a sentiment onto that heavy paper ~ just left the beach scene as a mini watercolor masterpiece for myself.

Don't be afraid; go ahead and play in the water!