Harvest Scenes and a Card Set by Karen Day

 Hello Ai Watercolour fans!

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!