Watercoloring a Pinecone

 It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial on Splitcoaststampers this week and I have chosen this Pine Cone from Diane Antone Studios seen here on YouTube. 

I took this shot while it was drying to remember the brushes I used but, I looks like a Princeton Neptune Script #1 and a 1/4" Silver Black Velvet Striper ( which has angled bristles ) ( it was the closest I could come to what I seen her doing with what I had and I think it worked pretty well) 

A closer look at the dried painting, The white here is a combo of Windsor & Newton White Gouache and Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white. I tend to mix white in the same spot in the palette frequently so, its hard to say now if they have mingled or not. All the other colors are Daniel Smith paints.

I used a paper trimmer to put this down to about A6-ish size and mounted it on foam tape with Pioneer photocorners on some Stampin' Up! Cinnamon Cider at A7. The sentiment here is from the Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Christmas set stamped with some Versafine Clair Nocturn on the Arches cotton paper. That's about it from me, I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring { Line Wash }

 This week Linda has shared with us this sketchy line wash style of painting where you sketch over your pencil sketching with a Micron pen ( or any waterproof ink pen) for bold lines. You can watch the video tutorial here on YouTube.

I did watch the video but, I did not follow along with it doing this, the whole thing I did was from memory after watching it so, the bottom of the pot is a slight trace around a blotter tool on my table and then my flowers seemed to look like stars to me which I thought was a fun twist. 

So, I decided to make my grassy star flowers shades of yellow. First layer of paints. 

Second layer of paint with more pen work throughout, more splatters.

Decided to add a few more pen lines around the blooms to get the white space and more cross hatching. 

The Painting was done on some Arches cold press with Daniel smith paints. This panel is up on foam tape over the textured Bazzill base. The sentiment here is from the Hero Arts Tulip set stamped on some Neenah solar white and die cut with a spellbinders framed tag die. This is tied on some black hemp string wrapped around the painted panel, so there is a couple more foam pop dots under the end of the tag to keep it flat. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us if you are so inclined.  I hope you are all doing well, Thanks for stopping by!

Inspired by {Art Fresco Table Project}

 This week Kia has shared with us a collection of artist decorated picnic tables seen here. I landed on this one with the butterflies and decided it would make a quick cool card. 

I started with a sheet of this green painted stripe looking printed paper and ran that through the big shot with a Stampin' Up woodgrain folder and then inked over the top of it with Citron Distress Oxide ink. The Tim Holtz butterfly was stamped with some versafine on Arches Hot Press WC paper and painted with Daniel smith paints and cut out with scissors. ( so, I whacked off one of the antennas so, I just used a Micron pen to draw some to the printed paper layer) The sheer ribbon is unknown and over an inch wide so I decided to tie some knots in it for interest and tucked that around the printed paper layer. The base is some green from Gina K Designs and I finished this one out at A6 in real life. I hope you are all 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 {Minted}

 This week Julie has shared with us the Minted site where I seen so many thing I bench marked as possibilities but, I kept coming back to this simple shades of green with all the movement piece of art work seen here. I also loved all the white space it has.

In the back of my mind as I have been looking at the sites that I am doing samples for at the moment, what I need are a few Guy birthdays and a few Anniversaries. And I also knew I had this pad of printed paper from Micheal's recollections line called Gilded Ink. ( it looks like alcohol ink backgrounds )  

 And so, this was done really quickly using the main sentiment from Riley & Co. and the tiny sentiment from A Muse. with some Versafine clair nocturn ink. The cardbase here is something from my unknowns folder and it finished out at A7 in real life. The dark spots in the ink pattern are really some what looksl ike gold foiling. ( it was a little hard to shoot and not have it appear totally black)I am thinking the shimmer from the gold really kicks it up a little into special even though it is a fairly flat design. That's about it from me, I hope you are all doing well. If you'd like to play along with us this challenge can be found here inside the "Inspiration" forums at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Geraniums

 This week Kia has shared a tutorial on painting Geraniums in a Vase seen here on YouTube. The artist also has a printable sketch seen here on her Facebook photo album page. I did not have much luck printing it so, I grabbed my phone and walked around the house shooting the ones I have blooming here at the moment. ( they look a little leggy and sad with all the heat we have been having so, a trim came after this) 

Front Porch steps pinks and reds Zonal Geraniums

Cropped view, you can click on these and see them larger and use your browsers back button to keep reading. 

an Burgundy/Red Ivy version. (Ignore the dying grass, we are focusing on keeping all the fruit trees, veggie garden and flowers watered more than the lawn during this continuing drought. )

A closer look at the petals this is so gorgeous in person. 

 

another pale pink this one is also a few years old.

This one is about 5 years old now, ( I haul it into the garage for the winter) 

Found this fun striped petals one this year, and the burgundy ivy one behind it too. ( its different than the one on the porch) 

So what I am seeing on my plants is the "ivy" leaf ones are more vine type movement and they are pretty much no reds on the leaves either. This one is darker than on the porch and more of a solid color on the petals. 

Now these, I put these in the garden shed last fall not in the garage, hubs thought I had "too many" flower pots in the garage so, I was willing to let these go. ( ha, they survived with no water all those months) went dormant and here they are baking away at the back door. I was pretty excited about that after the fact as this color does not seem to be in the stores this year here.

Its forest fire smog-y and hot hot hot here so, its hard to see in the photo but, the one on the left is more of a pale salmon ( as is the pot behind it) and the one on the right is a little deeper of a coral shade. I have a lot of allergies so, I never cut the things from my yard and put them in vases inside so, I decided to do a potted plant of Geraniums for my sample. 

 

Izzy is trying to decide if Tim on the lawn mower is a better bet for getting that ball in her mouth thrown.  

So, I really wanted something with larger flowers like the sketch in the video ( which is on the left here) but, I could not see it so, I grabbed this stamp that had small flowers and tried to sketch them with a graphite pencil.

But the little details kind of disappeared as the first layers of paint went on the sketch. ( this was done on some Arches cold press cotton paper) 

Second layer of wet paint here. ( hopefully it blends and fades a little when dry) This is Daniel Smith watercolor paints. 

I finished this out with a Classic Cream piece of Neenah that was run through the Anna Griffin Acanthus embossing folder and colored with Distress Oxide inks in a faux Patina type colors. The base is some thinish shimmery light blue and the sentiment here is from the Stampin' Up Teeny tiny wishes set die cut with a Stitched rectangle die. This is 6" square in real life. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us.  Hope you all are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Dirty Dozen August Christmas

 It's that time of the month again, and the Dirty Dozen Christmas challenge prompt is up here inside the special forums set aside for Fan Club members. I have a very loose thought about this months prompt so. I decided to focus on just one of the words. Pink. It's not something I do a whole lot of for Christmas. After I made that decision I decided to do a flower. ( of course right) well, actually in advance I thought I was going to use the little boy from that old old Stampin' Up set where he is laying in the snow making a snow angel. ( and I could not find him ) So, switching gears as I was down to the last minute to get my sample done I came across this old Penny Black brushstroke Poinsettia and thought it would paint up quickly. ha ha. 

I stamped this with Simon Says Stamp barely Beige ink on some cold press Arches paper and it got most of the image but, not all of it, so I ended up add-libbing what I thought it should look like and after a few rounds of paint the shadows, crevices really were not doing what I wanted them to so, I am leaning towards taking a pencil to this in the morning when I can see it in the day light. The polka dot print here is from my minds eye and the base is some textured Bazzill. the ribbons are from May Arts and Offray. This one finished out at A7 in real life. I hope you are all doing well and staying cool. Thanks for Stopping by.