Inspired by { Twig & Tweed}

 It's my turn to host the inspiration challenge and this week I have chosen this collection of boards by Twig and Tweed. Their web site can be seen here. Usually I leave an email to my self with a link to the photo I chose to CASE and this week, I forgot to do that. The one I chose is the last photo in the challenge post. Which is a gal with her chickens in front of an Orange VW bug bus. I found this on the "all pins" section and it does not tell me what boards its on, it tells me she pinned it from country living magazine. and the thing I took away from that photo was "Coral" not Orange. ha ha. so, I seen after I had painted her apron Coral that the main colors were orange and green. 

So I tried to find some papers that kind of sorta looked like a bridge between what the photo was and how I painted her. This is Franny Farmer from Stampin' Up! (and this is the first time I have colored her) She was stamped on some Arches cold press watercolor paper and painted with mostly Daniel Smith watercolors. I did add some white gel pen to the cheeks and the stitches on the apron pocket. and some brown fine liner pen to the words Chicken Feed on the sack she is holding. 

The yellowish frame was cut with an Time for tea stitched frame die and both of the sentiments were stamped on its drop piece. the top sentiment is from the Unity Stamps set called Coolest Chick ever and the bottom sentiment is from the Spellbinders house mouse set called Flower Market. these were both cut with a lawn fawn every day banners die. That whole panel with the painting and sentiments is up on foam tape as that lace is thick and clunky what's the word. clunny lace? something. mind went blank again. The green solid paper is from an old Graphic 45 pad and the print and yellow are Basic grey. This is on a piece of textured 6" square Bazzill. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Windy shore Grass

 This week Linda is sharing a video tutorial seen here on YouTube from Paul Clark on adding movement to watercolor and I chose to do the wind blown grass rather then the horse although I did consider using a stamp for a moving critter or person stamp and trying this idea with one of those and I may down the road this seemed like a good trial thing to give a whirl. ( grass is pretty easy to me now and a few years ago it stressed me out) 

I did not sketch this I just did something similar to what I remembered seeing in the video. ( I watched this last week and did this painting this afternoon after work today) 

I cut a piece of strathmore 400 series wc paper to 5 1/2" square because, I think I remember him saying this would work better on not cotton paper. I did give the back side of this two washes of plain clear water along with a layer of water under that on the glass mat. ( It does not work as well as it does on cotton paper but, I gave it a whirl) 

I let it get to damp status ( which happens fast at 90 degrees outside) and added some grass as a base layer and a little more color to the ground area. 

And then I did the dunk the corner of a paper towel in the clean water to drag some of the paint to the right as the wind is blowing from left to right in this scene. 

I did let the paper dry before I added all the bits you see to the foreground here and then I did add more as seen below. 

Added a little more grass and some more color/texture to the ground. Probably should have more grass here looking at his painting but, I am pretty tickled with how this turned out for adding the movement to the grass. I did add lib some flying birds into the sky and at some point when I make a decision I may add a sentiment to this and finish it into a card. ( that's debatable right now) I am also considering adding say a person in beach attire to the scene and just paper piecing them in done on a different sheet of wc paper. So, this is where things stand now. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by!

Watercoloring Crashing Waves

 This week Brenda has shared this video from Joe Cartwright called Crashing Waves Crookhaven Heads Seen here on YouTube. Be advised this is a long very informative tutorial and he paints like a photograph. That being said I almost walked away about half way through mine as I could see the flaws. I did do a simple sketch based off his but, more simple and I eliminated the rocks at the very bottom of the painting, as I had cut this piece of Arches cold press to A6 in real life. 

And I did do that with the water soluble pencil. and I did wet the back side of this paper twice and the glass mat on the table once. So, the paper did stick to the glass in the center. the edges did get a little warped. 

the backside getting wet, I did mix some sky and water colors but, not at the mud consistency that he shows as, by the time I got it light enough it was fairly watery. but, I was also trying for a cardfront not wall art so, I figured it would work.

so, first layer of paint. I did not finish the water and sky in one go as I kept going back and forth from this table to my laptop and so. 

I did try the tissue thing in the sky to soften the left side of the water spray. And the whites in the wave folding over went kaput already.

more paints added and this was around the time where I thought maybe I would just start over again. 

Started adding some rocks to the right and through the top third of the painting through the waves. 

I was mostly thinking I had totally overworked the water by this point but, decided to keep going to see if adding some shadows after it dried again if it would be "OK" for a cardfront. 

I ended up adding a whole second layer of paint to the sky so that there would be a little more contrast between it and the where the water spray should be since the color was so faint. did soften the left side of the spray again with a tissue. 

And then I decided it really needed more bright white so I grabbed the jar of Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white and added drops to the spray and wave fold and shore line foam bubble areas. 

What the painting finished at looking like. I did like how he matted his painting at the end so I dug out this Time For Tea A6 stitched frame die and cut one from some Sundance bright white felt textured cardstock and the opening for that was going to require cutting the painting down. So, I did work it closer to the top.

And then I did use foam tape under that to mount this to the same cardstock as a base. 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.

Watercoloring from Dots

 This week Angie is sharing this sketchy bloom done from dots of watercolor paint and a flat brush that you can see here on YouTube. By Maremi Simplecraft. So, I had a small pile of scraps of good Arches cold press watercolor paper and I decided since both of my good flat brushes were 3/4" wide that they would work to look for a color combo that might not make mud and practice the strokes.

These are all done with Daniel Smith watercolors on cotton paper and the solid ish purply one was kind of pretty and then I grabbed the "cotton" Strathmore notebook and tried it again. 

My black pen bled way more than hers did. 

A closer look at that. so, at this point I thought maybe try some different paints, and I grabbed a 12" square sheet of Strathmore 400 Series wc paper and the Mijello Mission Gold watercolors 

 And I found this 2" flat brush I found in a jar I had not played with before and have since forgotten why I picked it up. so. this first trial I did get a little bit more of a look on the first stroke that looked a little more like what she did. 

Evidently I didn't take a photo of the third one but, after it went along with the petal type strokes I ended up dragging the brush over the whole piece and then splattering all over it. one thing about this paint and paper combo. it stained the paper where those dots rested while I was making the dots on the paper to drag through. interesting. I did want to make something with these so, I actually started die cutting some of the trials with these bitty tiny Gummiapan dies that came in the mail last week from a store in Southern California called Color Me Nordic.  and I did get a card done that I will post some time after Father's day as it does not look at all like a sketchy flower. 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.

Watercoloring Peonies with a Side Helping from the IC.

 This week Kia is hosting both the Watercolor challenge and the Inspiration Challenge and the video for the watercolor was doing loose peonies seen here on YouTube by Harriet DeWinton. And then I started watching my buds like a hawk waiting to see them open this week. so Far the pale pink and bright pink have opened but not the layered color or the reds. 

So, I took some photos so I could get an idea on the pink ish color and I have a hard time painting pinks and reds it seems like I never have the shade I want. so, this is the pale pink. ( these are 30+ year old plants) That we moved here from our first house when we bough this one 20 years ago now.

There is a hint of yellow in the stems on these and in the centers of the blooms

The brighter pink shades. So, it was days apart between when I watched the video, seen the blooms open and then stole time to paint.

So, using the pinks I have I started like so on some Arches cold press watercolor paper with Daniel Smith paints.

And I knew that the Inspiration site she had chosen was this one to "Unshattered" and their pinterest boards where I found this simple bag. And I thought OK you could do some kind of a simple grid/plaid textured background for these and skip painting the mason jar vase element. 

So I pulled out this neutral printed paper out of a Maja designs Christmas pad and then ran it through the big shot in this Tim Holtz folder to get more texture on it and then chopped it up. 

Which I finished as a square card. the base is some Stardream shimmery pink cardstock cut to 5 1/2" square and then the birthday wishes was stamped previously and diecut with a rectangle die an was out of the envelope of previously done ones in the drawer. This is an old Hampton Arts dollar bin stamp that had a trio of gift packages to the right of the sentiment and I have cut this apart and removed mine from the block so, its a cling one now. The watercolor panel was also cut down with a rectangle die and that's about it from me, I hope you are doing well. Thanks for stopping by.