Watercoloring a Rainbow City

 This week Linda is sharing this video of a reflected happy rainbow city scene found here on YouTube by Leisl's Artistic Studio called Something Unique Looks tricky but anyone can do it watercolor landscape painting. She is selling the sketch for the scene on her shop and I did not buy one as It did not look that complicated. and so, I just kinda looked at the screen and tried something similar. 

 I did use a water soluble pencil for this. Its on Artist Loft watercolor paper cut to a piece that would fit on an Slimline Cardbase. ( so slightly under 4" X 9" ) 

 I did this mostly from memory and I probably got it out of order but, I started with awash for the sky, added some for the base reflection and started adding paint to the buildings. 

 

  first layers of paint and where I stopped.

I did decide to add another layer of paint to the buildings closer to the water and made the bushes closest to the viewer darker. I added more tree trunk type lines  to the reflection but, did not reflect the bushes or buildings ha ha. The reflection is more of the colors in the sky. I did pop a flag onto the top of one building. Thought about adding some birds but, decided to just leave this alone. There is some kind of a flaw in the paper where the tall purple building is closest to the front tree's and It is resisting the paint. so, I just decided this was OK to stop here. I do not have a plan to turn this into anything. 

What I liked best about her painting was how much white space there was around in the sky and the reflection and how dreamy that made the scene. in my mind the cropping this paper to be something that would fit on a card front was probably a not so great idea but, this is how you learn right? The scale of the scene is too big for this paper to give it the white space I wanted it to have. That's about it from me, If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.  

Inspired By {Crafty Hacks}

 This week Julie is sharing the Crafty Hacks site and pinterest boards collection where I found this white jack-o-lantern witch pin and smiled. and my second thought was, you could paint that. There was a how to tutorial for the watercoloring challenge earlier this week seen here and I remembered the colors and idea of how-to build a white ish pumpkin... 

So I cut a piece of Artist loft watercolor to A6 and pulled out my Daniel Smith watercolors. I did sketch this pumpkin to start because, I knew I needed to save room for the hat and I wanted it to be much larger than the card I did earlier in the week. 

 I used a water soluble pencil for this stage.

 I started building layers for the pumpkin it self and I knew the top would be under the hat brim so I stopped the ribs below where I thought that would be. 

 So I decided to add the hat while that first few rounds of paint dried on the face. I had such a big space to fill, it dried before I could blend the colors. 

 So I kept adding more paints and trying to blend it a little and then sketch on a single tooth smilin' Jack face.

 First layers of paint on the cut out face parts, I knew I wanted more deeper colors but, I figured the background was still light enough to mostly be able to paint over that. 

 I did end up adding a touch of green to the Jack face along with some shadows under the brim and under the body of the pumpkin. I dug for my cheesecloth but, it's hiding so out came this old May Arts gingham ribbon and hemp string to wrap around that carta bella print from their Americana pad. It was trimmed down slightly under 6" square and the painted panel was cut to as small as I dared and I did ink the edges of the watercolor paper with some Vintage Photo DOX ink. The sentiment here was stamped on a scrap of thyme cardstock and cut with an Crafters Companion Tags & Tickets die. I do not know who makes that sentiment, my first thought was Unity but, I don't know for sure anymore. The base here is some textured "Yam" Bazzill cardstock and as I look back at the pin I realize I left off all the decorations and the jingle bell from the hat and I am OK with that. I think this conveys the same silly vibe that pin has and I am pretty tickled with how it turned out and am sitting on my hands to not add more paint to it. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Dirty Dozen October Christmas card

 Happy Fall everyone, we are heading into the home stretch for "making" for the holidays now is the way my brain works once Autumn arrives so, I really loved the colors of this month's prompt for doing some Christmas ahead of time project with the dirty girls seen here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club members. I knew I would have something that would work. So, I ended up choosing this Stamplorations set called fa-la-la-la-latte and stamping the image and sentiment on the artist loft watercolor paper with some Versafine clair Acorn ink.

I used some Daniel Smith watercolors to paint it and then added white gouache to the "foam" on the coffee but, I didn't really see it so well when it was dry so when the card was all the way done I did add some stickles glitter glue to the foam and the centers of the all spice. 

The printed papers here are both from the Simple Stories simple vintage holly jolly pad and that lace is vintage. The water colored panel was diecut with an Mama Elephant deckled frame die and is up on foam pop dots over the papers. That's really all I did here and I do like the not so traditional colors. That's about it from me. I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Watercoloring a White Pumpkin

 This week Kia is sharing this video from Emma Jane Lefebvre called No fail watercolor pumpkins seen here on YouTube. I did watch the whole video and my brain retained the I love the "white" one and the bumpy edges parts the best so, that is where I started and I liked it so well that I just made it into a simple fall card.

 I did mix my "white" as very diluted black with a touch of van dyck brown. and then later I added in some greens got it "too green" and wiped some of that off with a damp brush. and I just decided to stop before I totally overworked it. I think I will be doing more of these "white" pumpkins soon, maybe a little larger. this was done with an Size 8 Brush on some Arches watercolor paper. (the back side of a failed piece) 

 because this is so small it did not take long to dry so I trimmed it down with an Tattered Lace Antique lace essential rectangle die and put foam tape under it. the ribbon wrapped around the end is stitched and has some bulk to it so, the tiny lili of the valley sentiment tag is just tied on that with some natural hemp string. I cut that out with scissors and used a bit of watercolor paint on the acorns on it. It was stamped on a scrap of SU soft seafoam cardstock. I recently received this pack of Brutus Monroe "Ever After" lace printed papers pack and I thought the colors of this one played well with my not really white pumpkin. The base here is some columns grey Neenah and its A6 in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Terrain}

 This week Amy is sharing the Terrain site and They also have pinterest boards seen here. I seen so much eye candy... but, seeing as this is the first week of fall ( My Favorite Season) I found my self keep coming back to these leafy paper placemats. I loved the colors. So, I dug out these Tim Holtz Sizzix leaf dies and cut some from watercolor paper.

 So I started cleaning off a palette from previously with some warm toned paints on it. and let them dry.

 more paints added and left to dry.

 I had originally thought I could pile on all the leaves but, it ended up being just too cluttered for this stark white base to me so, I just kept two of them and the one on the top is up on slight foam pop dots. The sentiment here is from the Tim Holtz tiny text Christmas with some versafine here directly on the base. letting it be more Clean and Simple I guess. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by.  

Watercoloring Leaves

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube  By Kristin Van Leuven called "Painting watercolor fall leaves using my favorite trick" that I think the thing she most wants to share is how she uses her brush on the veins of the leaves. Or mixing the paints. I was not really sure & So, I will have some long days at work this week and I decided to try doing this with a limited supply of paint color choices That I had left at work a long time ago. Knowing I would not be home early to try this on tuesday afternoon. I did not have time to paint like normal over the weekend. So, I tossed this sketchbook in my bag this morning and ran out the door.  I did use the first page for mixing some  fall-ish colors. I did not mix the same colors she did and I did not have a pencil in my office at work. Seriously who knew? I used to use pencils all the time so that took me by surprise and I decided to just wing painting some leaves.

 Used the shades listed under the paint samples in the sketch book to get those shades and then started on the first leaf. This was jump started by the purple tipped on on her top right corner. 

 Tried a few more shapes of leaves, and did use the end of the brush to drag through the paint to make the veins. 

 Added some shadows to the edges of the leaves. The colors are interesting but, very muted so, they don't really have that vibe she has going on and that's OK I guess. :) That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.