Watercolor Lighthouse by Dawn Wagner

 Lighthouse Hello! 

I am honored to be a substitute guest designer. You know when you were in school and had a substitute teacher, some were good, some not so good. Hopefully I tempt your creativity and give you a reason to try something new. I created a lighthouse scene for a Father’s Day card.

 

I used the following sets: 5465-Cliffs, 5466-Lighthouse, 5473- Seagull and a small grass from the foliage set, 4051. I used Canson watercolor paper, #4 and #0 brushes, Tombow colors 969, 565, 757, 990, N35, 177, 403 and 555, TwinTone colors chocolate, gray, Prussian blue, light blue, navy and turquoise blue, KingArt 132 - Blue, and a Zig Millennium Pure Black M5-005 micron-like pen for fine details. I inked the left facing cliff with 969 first, then 565. I did not stamp off as I wanted a bolder appearance. For the right facing cliff, I only inked the part I needed to make the cliff look complete using a stamp positioner. I then inked the lighthouse the same way and placed on the cliff. I wet my brush and started pulling the color out of the lines to begin the shading process. Using 757, I started adding color to the lighthouse very lightly, working from the outside toward the middle. I continued to add layers of the same color to get the effect I was looking for. I pulled the color out of the bottom only of the rocks and used a #0 brush to add 969 to the bottom and dragged upward to make the rocks look three dimensional and rounded. I used 757 to paint the bricks leaving some white space. I used 990 for the door and to fill in between the rocks. I used 990 on the small building and N35 lightly for the roof. I used the chocolate TwinTone to draw vertical lines on the door and used the gray TwinTone to draw roof lines. I used the Zig micron pen to draw in the windows and added minor shading for the bricks. I used 177 for the grassy areas. I added small grass from 4051. The cliffs used almost all colors except 757. I made sure the darkest parts of the cliffs were the parts where the rocks appeared to be stacked. I tried to leave some light parts with no color to create the highlights of the cliff side. For the water, I used a very light layer of 565 as the base of the water. I then added different TwinTone blues to different areas at the base of the rocks. I used just a wet brush and dragged the color out to create the depth of the water. I continued this process until I achieved the water I was looking for. I used 969 very lightly to create the reflection and the appearance of rocks in the water. I added the seagulls using 565, stamping off to make one set lighter than the other. I used KingArt 132 Blue for the rolling sky surrounding the lighthouse. I used 555 as the super light base for the rest of the sky. I went back through with TwinTones to make the shadows darker where needed. I used a Renke die cut for the best fit for the lighthouse, and color coordinated backgrounds for the card.

Thank you kindly for tuning in and get happy creating!