Hello Ai Fans!
This week, we have a back-to-basics for our
Watercolor Wednesday! We get asked by new watercolor stampers all the time, "Where do I start?" and "What supplies do I need?" Bonnie will take us back to the beginning with an overview of our favorite tools to achieve beautiful, watercolor paintings with the use of our rubber stamps!
For Watercolor Stamping, there are some necessary supplies to get the desired look.
Basic Supplies
1. Watercolor Paper (
Canson XL or
Strathmore)
2. Synthetic, Round Watercolor Brush #4 (
Connoisseur)
3. Water-Based Markers (
Tombow Markers - Bonnie's Favorites)
4.
WC Foliage Set 1 and
WC Flower Set 1
5. A
Main Image Set of your Choice
6.
Watercolor Palette and
Acrylic Blocks
Let's explain these more in detail!
Watercolor Paper is very important for this technique, as when you stamp in water-based ink, it keeps the color on top of the paper, so you can easily move it with a damp brush. Cardstock and alcohol-based markers will not work for this project series. We prefer
Canson XL or
Strathmore watercolor paper and use the textured side, as it does not oversaturate the paper with color.
Our
Connoisseur #4 Brush is a coveted item, as no regular brush will do! One, your brush has to be synthetic, as natural hair brushes will sag and not hold its shape with water on it. The synthetic gives us the 'bounce' we are looking for as we blend and gently tap around the image. This brush is also the perfect size to pull color from your main images and blend your flowers and foliage.
Although any water-based marker will work for this technique, we highly recommend you use
Tombow Dual Brush Markers on your projects. First, we like Tombow markers the best because they are very wet, so when stamping your multiple impressions, you can get up to 10 images, where other markers you might get 3 or 4. Second, Tombow has highly pigmented colors, so when you are blending, you do not need to work as hard to blend. Third, we love the bullet tip on the other side of the Dual Brush Pens (or use our
TwinTone markers for an even finer tip), which give us the ability to add darker shadows and details to the image to really make areas pop!
To get stamping, we suggest starting with our
WC Foliage Set 1 and
WC Flower Set 1. These
basic sets are what you will carry through all your projects. You will see the grasses, vines, flower bunches, and long stems used in any watercolor we create. We started with these two staple sets because if we created sets with everything for one project, you would end up with a multitude of tiny grasses or flowers! Once you have these two, you can pick and choose whichever scenes you would like to create, such as
gorgeous containers, stunning structures, or beautiful landscapes.
To help beginners get started, we created the
Watercolor Starter Bundle, combining our original
WC Foliage Set 1 and
WC Flower Set 1 with our
WC Decorative Jars Set at discounted price! These three sets can be mixed and matched to create a range of unique projects!
We add color to many of our images (washes of the sky, color to main images) and the easiest way to do this is by rubbing the brush tip of your marker onto our
Ai Watercolor Palette and pulling the color off with your brush. This gives you great control over the amount of color going to your image, and you can easily shade by adding layers of color. Our palette is a game changer, perfectly white so you can see your color, and you can always reactivate the dried ink with your damp brush.
Another great option to add to your collection are our tiny
Acrylic Blocks. We offer square blocks in
1",
1.5", and 3" to offer smaller sizes for your little images, like the teeny tiny grass and daisy bunch. Bonnie is often suggesting to permanently adhere your tiny stamps to our
1" block with super glue so you don't lose them!
Now check out this great introduction to watercolor video with Bonnie, as she shows the step-by-step techniques in building your foliages and flowers, and how to add them together in this teapot from our
WC Decorative Jar Set.
Do you have any other questions as a beginner? Maybe even intermediate or advanced questions? We are working on a Frequently Asked Questions video and would love for you to leave a comment on this video for our next project!
