Watercolor Weekend 8-5-2023

 Hello Ai Watercolor Fans!

Welcome to Watercolor Weekend.

As usual, we have 3 stunning cards from our Design Team for you.

They do a wonderful job explaining how they've created their cards so that you can give them a try yourself. Today we have 3 very different cards.  We have a beach scene, a still life and a whimsical Hobbit door.

Let's start off with Diane this week.

Hello Ai Watercolor Fans and welcome to another Watercolor Weekend! My husband and I recently celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary. He surprised me with the most gorgeous summer bouquet, full of brightly colored flowers! Today’s painting is inspired by those beautiful flowers. I looked through my watercolor flowers and foliage sets and chose stamps that matched closely to my bouquet. Several of the watercolor mini sets contain flowers and foliage options too, and I have used a few of them here. 

 

Flowers and Foliage were chosen from the following sets:  5475 - Flower Set 6, 4761 - Watering Can, 4604 - Chest of Flowers, 4867 - WC Foliage Set 2, 5474 - Flower Set 5, 5476 - Foliage Set 5, and 5424 - WC Pond Set. 

I inked the pitcher from 5123 - WC Decorative Jar Set in 969/565 and stamped off a couple of times before stamping onto my Canson XL watercolor paper. With a damp brush, I pulled out some color from the lines of the stamped image and brushed in some shadows and contours. I mixed 379 with a small amount of 969 to create a nice deep aqua blue for the pitcher. In some areas, I brushed in more layers to darken the shaded areas. I kept the center area lighter.

To create a sunflower, I used the water lily stamp from 5424. I inked the stamp with 055 and on the outer edges with 993. For each sunflower, I stamped the image 4 times – turning a quarter turn each time in a clockwise motion to create the rounded sunflower. With a damp brush, I lightly blended the colors. Next, I inked just two of the larger bottom leaves of the ivy vine from 4867 in 249 and placed them just below the sunflowers and slightly over the edge of the pitcher. With some 969 from my palette, I brushed in the large brown centers of the sunflowers, leaving a small circle in the center.

Next, I added a few of the rounded leaf vines to the edge of the pitcher in 177, trailing off to the left and right. Now with some foundational greenery in place, I added in some more flowers. I started with the deep red flowers. I inked just the flower petals of the smallest flower bunch from 5475 in 757 and stamped them in around the sunflowers in clusters. Sometimes I only used one of the flower heads. I added the tall yellow flowers next. This flower came from set 4604. I inked the tall, thin flower with 055 first and a little bit of 133 at the bottom but did not ink the stem. I stamped the yellow flower to the left, center, and right. When necessary, I used a small piece of Post-It tape to mask any flowers I didn’t want to stamp over. For the purple flower bunches, I inked the flower stamp from 4761 in 606 and portions of the stem with 177. I inked the straight vine from 5476 in 133 and added to areas that needed a little more greenery to round out the bouquet. With a lightly damp brush I blended out the flowers one color at a time. I tried to maintain the flowers shapes as much as possible, yet still giving them a watercolor look. Next, I did the same for the greenery. Once all the flowers and greenery were blended, I added additonal leaves here and there with the rounded vine tip from 5476 to fill in any gaps that needed greenery. Sometimes, I just dabbed in some ink from my palette. I added in a few more small sprigs of greenery using a floral stamp from 5474. Yes, you can ink some flowers to make them look like folliage! I inked just the top portion of the floral stem in 177 and added to the greenery of the bouquet. 

With a lightly damp brush I pulled out some of the color from the greenery onto the background to soften and blend the outer edges of the bouquet. Using my stamp positioner, I inked the flower motif in 379 and stamped onto the pitcher. To ground the pitcher, I brushed in a shadow under the pitcher in a water mix of 379 and a small amount of 969. I then brushed in a watery mix of 526 around the bouquet to complete the scene. Details were added back where needed with the fine point of a brown or gray Twintone. To add some definition to some of the petals of the sunflower, I used a chrome yellow Twintone marker.

   

 I’m very happy with how this painting turned out. I think I was really able to capture my beautiful Anniversary Bouquet. Thank you for joining us for another Watercolor Weekend, until next time – Happy Painting!

Next is Tricia's Hobbit door.

Hello watercolor fans, welcome back!  This weekend I chose a stamp set from 2018, the Hobbit Door.  I really wanted it to feel like the house was under a dirt mound.  This is always such a fun set to play with.  I did a video using the round hobbit door in the winter when it first came out.  Here’s how I created this Hobbit House with an unusually bright pink door (why not? Right, it’s just too fun).

 

First, I started off by inking the Hobbit Door with 969 and 569 (along the stairs, door hinges and door handle).  I did NOT stamp it off as I wanted to make it pretty dark.  I stamped it onto the watercolor paper.  Next, I masked it off using some Post It tape to protect it from the stamping of the cliff above it.  I inked the short cliff up with 177 on top and 969 on the bottom, and stamped it above the door.  I pulled the color out of the lines beneath the tops of each of the stones, layering additional color on top for character.  I added a bit of yellow on top as well.  When it was dry, I added some cracks with my black Twintone marker.

I pulled the color out of around the outside of the door and down from underneath the grass.  You need to use layering to build the color up behind the door.  I added a wash of green to the top of the grassy area.  Once it was dry, I stamped some grass along the ridges on top of the cliff.  I pulled the color out of the lines and added some brown in between.  I used blue-green and purple to ink up the dots from the original flowers set to create the flowers on top. 

For the door, I pulled additional color into the shadows and then layers pink and purple in varying shades to create depth.  I was going to go realistic, but then thought “No” why not make it a pretty girl door. And I’m the artist, so that’s what I did.  Lastly, I used the greenery from the original foliage set to create the bushes along the bottom.  I added water to the flowers and foliage.  I used some blue for the sky. I wanted it to really feel “watercolory” so I added a lot of water to the edges to fade them out.  I pulled out my Kendra dots to add some dots in the background for a more whimsical look.  I signed and dated it.

To create the card, I used a Gina K Designs die set to cut out the image and the mat (Gina K Turquoise Sea).  Using my MISTI, I stamped “Home Sweet Home” using Gina K ink in the bottom left corner.  I glued them all together using connect glue.

Thank you so much for spending some of your time with us, we love to see what you create!  Make sure you tag us so we can be inspired by you!

We'll close out our weekend with Karen's beautiful beach scene.

Hello Ai Watercolour fans!

I've used the new 5749 - SF Beach Cabin stamp today in a slightly different way.

I wanted to do a horizontal scene with this stamp, instead of the up and down layout of it.  I began by colouring only the chair/umbrella/pots with my Tombow #969/565 and stamped it onto my Canson XL Watercolour paper.  Then I coloured up just the beach cabin, and positioned it slightly to the right of the chair.  With a pencil, I sketched in where the horizon would be, and added a mountain in the distance.  I used the 5120 - WC Palm Tree Set, with a combination of #126/346 on the different palm fronds to create several palm trees and some foliage in the foreground.  I used two of the stamps from 5009 - WC Mini Flower Set in #856 and #565 to add flowers to the pots and scattered around on the sand.  The chair was painted in #533, and the house and umbrella were done with #993, 933 and 856.  

A wash of #947 created the sand, #443/565 created the tropical water, and #493 was added to the sky.  Tones of #977/947 were painted on the mountain and tree trunk, with shading using #565.  Both my scene and the blue mat were cut out with the 5063 - Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies, and my scene was attached to the base with some 3D foam adhesive.