Watercoloring a Jacaranda Tree

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube doing a Jacaranda Tree that blooms with purple flowers by Leisa O'Brien So pretty. I did see that she started her sketch of the tree trunk with a watercolor pencil. So I did do that.

 And I did leave space for the blooms.

And I really like how this looks, this is just a black watercolor pencil & water.

So I used these two brushes to start adding splotchy blooms to the space between those branches.

 I did try adding some "grass" spots to the purple carpet of fallen blooms on the ground under the tree but, I really don't like how that turned out and I did keep adding more paint to this off and on last weekend.

I decided to tuck in some flying birds for fun. with the additional layers of paint. 

So, this has a few more shadow ( darker) blooms and this is where I stopped. and I realized I made this too big to fit on a card front unless I cut it down. So I am still thinking about that.  If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. I hope you are doing well and I appreciate that you took the time to visit.

 

Watercoloring a Weeping Willow Tree

 This week Ann is sharing this video tutorial on doing a dry brush style weeping willow tree seen here on YouTube by Olga Koelsch called easy watercolor weeping willow. So, I watched the part where she did the background then walked away to let it dry, and I did try a simple sketch.

And the thing is I am using a water soluble pencil for these sketches so, I knew doing the background I was going to have to remember where the lines were for the tree. so, I did not do that many of them.

 

I think of these tutorials like a memory game, what do you remember. well this is what I remembered and when I turned the video back on where I had stopped and she starts in on the tree trunk I realized. I had totally spaced having a horizon line haha.

So I added in a slight green tinted line to the horizon. maybe its far away bushes and such... I didn't try to make it into any thing. 

 

I went back and started watching the video and started in with some squiggly branches and a trunk and some leaves. I did consider going outside to look at the colors of mine. I bought a stick Weeping willow tree for 10.00 about what 18 years ago? maybe less, its a pretty big tree they grow quick with enough water so, mine ( I think without looking) the end branches tend to lean a little more on the green side so, I thought lets just wing it.

I decided the branches needed to kiss towards the ground more, remembered the "shadow" part. I don't really remember any of the colors of paints she may have mentioned and mine are a mix mostly of what ever was close by in the palette. And this is where I stopped. This is some Arches cold press with Daniel Smith paints and I did all of it with just the one brush. I am trying to decided what else I want to add to this scene, mine is a hiding spot for all the birds that think they are being so stealthy while they stalk my process of refilling the bird feeders in my yard ha ha. ( so my tree tends to have quite a bit of noise coming through the leaves ) That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

 

Inspired by {Olive & Cocoa}

 This week Amy is sharing the Olive & Cocoa site & Pinterest Boards that has lots of pretty gift baskets and such and I came across this pin of some pretty Fern Lanterns and thought OK you can work with that. I had this skinny drop piece of SU Pear cardstock on the table from the watercoloring challenge earlier in the week and decided maybe I'd make a book mark.

 So I stamped this Just for Fun Fern Collage {framed fern stamp with the dragonfly on it} ( this is one stamp) with some Versafine ink and started adding a little bit of Daniel Smith watercolors to it. And then the more I thought about it the more I realized a lot of people I know tend to read their electronic books more than their paper ones so I decided to pivot and make it a simple A2 card.

The base on this is some Gina K cardstock and it's really hard to see but, I added some D.S. irridescent silver paint to the dragonfly and gold to the frame of the image stamp. I am leaning towards thinking that sentiment is probably a Unity Stamps one but, off the top of my head your guess is as good as mine. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Watercoloring a Night skyline scene

 This week Suz is sharing this tutorial seen here on YouTube  Called Easy watercolor Birthday Card Painting series 5/10 Night sky painting tutorial for beginners by Prema Watercolor. That does a star filled night sky with trees as the silhouettes. I liked the colors and the idea of starting with the ground and turning the paper upside down so, I did do that. 

 I don't remember now what she used to draw her circle frame but, I had a roll of string handy so this is what I used. The Arches cold press watercolor paper was cut to A6 before I started. 

 So I did a wash, splattered on some "stars" and instantly did not like the size of them, I knew they would spread even more from what you see here so, I instantly got the whole circle wet again and added another layer of paints to the wash of it. 

Then liking the deepness of the paints better on this second layer I walked away and let it dry.

Once it was dry I started adding some trees to the edge and realized I forgot to splatter some stars in the sky so I did that next. (by dropping in some dots of bleed proof white rather than splattering it) I figured my trees did not need stars on them ha ha.

 And I started adding some shading to the tree and ground and such as well.

 I felt like I did not get my trees out of the box much and the other side was looking kinda neekid so, I added another tree to the right side extending it farther down the panel.

 And I kept adding more "shadows" and this panel was on the table the same time I was messing around with the snowangel stamp from the post before this one and so, then some Graphite watercolors were added along the edges of the circle framing and I kept adding shadows to the tress and ground, some grass. and I told my self if I didn't stop it would soon not look much like the tutorial so. I dug out an Avery Elle stamp set and added the sentiment directly to the panel with some Versafine ink. ( and I let this sit a few days to "dry" ) 

I put a layer of foam mounting tape behind the painted panel and added it to an A7 cardbase that was pre-made out of the drawer and you guessed it, this card base is although textured flimsy and it wiggled so at this point I am debating cutting the card apart and adding it to something more sturdy or adding the happy birthday part of the sentiment to a sturdy panel and gluing that on the inside but, this is where things stand tonight. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & I appreciate you stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. 
 

Wild Buck

 This week the Clean and Simple challenge has an use an Wild Animal as the theme and I have so many wild animal stamps that it took me a while to decide what to do, and then knowing I always need guy cards I decided to pick one that I would not have to color as the line art is very detailed and in my head that meant it was more "clean" 

This is a Unity Stamps "The Wild Haven" image that was done with Versafine Pinecone ink on some Neenah environmental card. I used an really old Simon Says Stamp wonky stitched rectangle die to trim it down and then used the same cardstock for its base. And then I started second guessing the whole thing about if it really was Clean and simple as the white space is in short supply on an A2 sized card. I did end up using some DOX scorched timber ink on the edges of the diecut panel to give it some more depth. And it was a really quick and easy card to do. So, I may just pull out some more similar types of line art and do a stack of them while the mess is out. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Thinking of you herbs

 and that whole dig out an old stamp and see what happens continues...

So this round of that game was started with this row of potted herbs from Stampin' Up! Sweet herbs set stamped with some versafine sand dune ink on cold press watercolor paper. I was hoping it would give me enough of a guide to paint and not be so in your face that it could go "no line" look at the end.

 

So this morning before work I added in some greens. I did not try to make them real but, I did try to do pots next to each other not the same shade of green.

And when I came home I started adding some shading and a little more greens and browns and such and when the paint was dry on the name signs I did go over the top of those with a brown fine liner pen.

 

The edges of all the cut papers were inked with some DOX bundled sage ink. That sentiment ( Hero Arts ) was stamped on a scrap of Neenah earthstone and also inked. the green scrap under it was run through the cuttlebug gingham folder when I was playing with that the other day and this was the trial piece I had that I used in the folder before I used it on the piece that went on the other card to see if the scale of the squares would work. ( I cut this scrap piece into strips yesterday) thinking to use them on the watering can card but, I realized it was already "not clean" or much on the simple side so I let it sit. The printed paper under that is from the Prima Nature garden pad and the base here is some Neenah classic cream. This is A6 in real life and I am liking how the paints dried so, this is tempting to pull out some other old stamp and see what happens. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a simple tree

 I am laughing out loud at the title of this post. This week we are giving this tree created with a fan brush a whirl for the watercoloring challenge and this was suggested by Janine this week as a guest host. You can see the short ( 1 minute ) Video on Facebook here. by Matthew Palmer. If you go to his YouTube channel and click on the shorts, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find it. But the title is 60 second lesson A Summer Tree. 

So, I thought no problem ( he makes it look very easy) and I started looking at my brushes. I was pretty sure I owned a fan brush and the first thing I found was this. ( a fan Wisp brush) 

So I thought lets see what happens. 

 

Too much white space so, I took all the brushes out of the jar and found this smaller even shorter brush.

My thought was the bristles were just too short. so, I thought OK Micheals is open go see if they have any brushes on the shelf. ( its a hit and miss store, and its the only craft store that is in this town now, the next closest ones are 80 miles west of here) 

 

So ,these were the only fan brushes they had. and they claim to be the same size made by the same company but the one on the left looked like it had more bristles to me. and they were doing a buy one get one half off sale so I thought what the heck and brought them both home. ( these are also listed in their store as Acrylic brushes not watercolor ones but, they did not seem too stiff so I thought OK they should work) 

 Okay so at this point the length of the bristles does not seem to matter much and now I am thinking maybe this needs a lot less water like paint more straight out of the tube consistency? Not really sure but that is the game plan for the next thing to try. 

 And then I had an AH-Ha moment... I tried doing the brush in a flat-ish perpendicular (horizontal) to the paper type angle and kept the bristles at the top of the page and the bottom of the brush towards me and then drug / waved the brush down the page towards me. If you normally paint with a round brush and the handle is up in the air, that is what I was doing with these brushes. So the angle is important here. 

 So with that figured out, I decided it was time to switch to some Arches cold press paper and try a whole tree. 

 And I did use the small brush I owned before this all started and that worked. 

So I added a little more darker green to it because, the colors were a little too close to each other I guess to really see the different shades. And I wanted some shadow sections.

I then let this sit for two days trying to figure out what to do with it. I was just so excited by the time I finished getting the hand/brush/paint to work I just picked it up and set it down a lot.

 So far I have left off the sentiment as I am not sure what I want to do with this and I have mounted it simply to a premade 49& market card base. Its A2 in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

 

 

Watercoloring an Abstract tree with flowers

 This week Suz is sharing a Paul Clark video seen here on YouTube. Called How to paint a spring garden Scene. So I used some Arches Cold press paper and Daniel Smith paints. 

I realized as I started the yellow into the wash that the pencil was going to dissolve and the only thing I had tried to sketch was the tree trunk.

 So, I did watch the video and I really could not remember what came after the yellow in the sky if it was the purple flowers, the grass or the tree trunk. So, I just kept painting as I knew I probably would not end up with something that looked too much like his painting and I knew I had to keep going to keep it moist. 

 So I started in with the trunk and did remember the drag the end of the brush through the paint detail.

 So I added in some tulips to the background and then more grass.

 More splatters in the purples, more tulips, more grass. misted the paper some more as it was drying pretty quickly by this time.

 Decided to add a third kind of abstract flower that was a combination of red and purple. more splatters etc.

 more of the same.

 I did add more splatters which did not do much so, I ended up dropping in the paint where I wanted some darks.

Tried adding some yellow tulips and more drops of paint to the dark red-ish purple flowers at the bottom.added some darker colors to the edges. 

Tried to add some dark to the edges of the paper as it was so faded. and added more to the edges of the branches and such. I did start to wonder if this would have turned out better on Rough texture paper ( I have some but, it was handy to reach for just the cold press. I have let this sit aside to dry and see what happens when it is dry. 

 What it dried like. I am not so sure I have an idea for this yet so, its just loose paper still. I am thinking I like how the purple flower layers dried and maybe this will work cut down smaller than this someday. Not sure yet. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by { Gatsby Backdrops }

 This week Amy is sharing the Gatsby backdrops for photographers site. They also have a collection of Pinterest boards. I love this the whole idea is so cool esp. if you are shooting people is my thought. I could have used these things when J was young. Anyways thinking of that and him, he has a birthday soon and I started poking around in the "wood" section and stopped on this simple one as I knew I could build on it. 

So I started poking through all my pads of printed woodgrain papers and some were so somber when I stamped on them they look like they are leaning more towards sympathy cards and some the paper was glossy and on and on and finally I found this package from Stampin up called Wood Textures print and I liked that the knot in the corner could play as a ripple in the reflection (this was done in the middle of the night when I could not sleep so, yeah no cups of joe have been consumed here as of yet) and after It took me I bet you I rejected ever shade of brown cardstock I had in the 12" size looking for something to blend with it. (this paper has a slightly pink-ish undertone to my eye) so, I finally found a single sheet of this chocolate cardstock from Uniquely Creative. no telling how long I have has this one but, it has that same pink-ish look to me in the middle of the night so. this so simple card took an hour haha.

The reflection scene here is from the Stampin' Up! set called Quiet reflections and the sentiment is one of the oldest one I have that is from Great Impressions. both were stamped with some Versafine Pinecone ink and then I cut that layer with a Gummiapan old paper die ( the largest one in the set) and inked the edges with some DOX scorched timber to loose the white edge. I am debating about adding something silly to the inside because, 30 is a milestone but, I think I will go make some coffee first. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us, you can find this challenge here at SCS. 
 

 

Virtual Stamp Night { Go 4 the Gold Continued }

 Good Morning, I hope you are staying warm and have some time for yourself this weekend. I decided to steal some for me in snatches yesterday and I did do a couple of simple cards for VSN that is going on now. And this morning when I came up the stairs this is what I seen. And I decided. that if I would like to do a few more of the challenges today I need to clear the decks.

 The view when I got to the top of the stairs.

 Where I actually stand to stamp. Yeah, the struggle is real and it looks like I lost.. haha. I won't put away everything you see here as I do create with what ever is in front of me and I "Know" that pad of printed paper that was used on the snowman card below just may have a forest scene print that will pull together a wall paper I seen for this weekends IC that Denise is hosting and LizBeths Icy VSN challenges... but, that will be later this morning maybe after the sun is up is the hope. 

 Kim is hosting a back to the basics challenge ( stamps, ink & paper only) and I had this drop piece of Bashful Blue card from my VSN sample I made for my challenge and I also have ( its hard to see but, on the first desk shot, I am making stamped sheets for pockets that I laminate for cling stamp storage and this sentiment is in one of those silly dog sets from Unity Stamps ( a new one I think ) and I knew it was over there so I stamped it on the bottom of this 3" square and then started looking for a face that would fit above it. ( This gal is one of the oldest stamps I have and I took her off the block a long time ago and my memory does not remember her name at the moment It is called Elegant Hat by Inkadinkado.) but, I did add a little bit of watercolor paint to this. ( very little water in the paint) and called it "good enough" 

 The next one I did finish is this long tall snowman for Vickkijo's made from snow challenge. I stamped it on some Arches cold press watercolor paper with Versafine morning mist and started adding DS watercolors to it, I also had stamped two of the twig arms on a scrap from when I cut around the body but, I was not able to successfully cut around those "fingers" so, the pivot was I decided about where he would stand on that Kaiser kraft music sheet print and then stamped one twig directly on the printed paper, glued him down, then waited for any paint on his body to be fully dry then stamped the cross body arm. There is watercolor on both of them and it was very little water so, the printed paper was fine with that. The base here is some Textured Bazzill and this one is A6 in real life. I did that sentiment tag a few weeks ago and I no longer remember the details. ( I might edit this if I find the packages as I am "cleaning" ) 

Those were the two I got done in the middle of the very early Saturday am night and then when we got home in the afternoon I stole some time from helping Hubs to do this one for Brenda's Mountains / Gold Mining challenge that had gone live when I went up stairs again.

The scene here is from the Stampin' Up! Beauty of Life set and its on some cold press Arches with a light first round of DS watercolor paints. ( My eyes seen a lack of shadows on this and I may add more paint to it later) This was cut with a large Spellbinders deckle die and the edges have some Scorched Timber DOX ink on it, its up on foam pop dots. That sentiment is from the Paper Artsy Sara Naumann set that I have not clue what the sets name is. maybe ESN40 ?I stamped some time around last Christmas and it was just sitting there waiting for me to diecut it, so I used a Spellbinders Perfect touch rectangle die on it to give it some interest on the edges and found this green in my ( I don't know what brands loose sheets hanging folder of green papers and made it A2.) And then I added some white gouache to the clouds and the water ripples because, that paper is not really a "bright" white and I wanted those highlights. That's about it from me at the moment. I am hoping to be back later with more progress. Thanks for stopping by.