I am loving experimenting with digital stamps, but my printer won’t take Bristol Smooth and I haven’t found a decent, smooth enough paper that will go through yet either, so I have been somewhat restricted as to mediums I can use. I’ve been wanting to watercolour some of these beautiful images by Gracie but I wasn’t sure how best to go about it, until I saw Kristina Werner’s recent video about this very subject!
I decided to try her tip about tracing my image, using a light box underneath, (but actually I don’t have a light box, so i used the torch on my phone!)
Once I had traced it, I used a kneaded eraser to pick up some of the graphite, leaving just enough to make out the image.
Emboss Resisting a Sentiment
I wanted my sentiment to be inside the cup so I needed it to show through the watercolour; I wanted it to be quite stark white too, almost like the foam on a cappuccino, so I used a Versamark pen to trace over the sentiment and then added white superfine embossing powder from WOW! That will resist the watercolour really well, and stay true white.
Adding Some Colour with Watercolour Pencils
I decided to use my Arteza Woodless Watercolour Pencils to paint this because I haven’t had them out in ages and they are fantastically pigmented! Rather than colouring directly on the paper I took a wet brush to the pencil itself and then added the pigment to the already wet paper. I repeated this for each section, making sure to allow enough time for each part to dry before I painted anything that would touch it.
I wanted to deepen some of the colours a little and I wasn’t getting either the pigment or the control to achieve the look I wanted with the watercolour pencils.
OK, For Real Now, Do you ever have one of those days when you just don’t get it ‘right’? Gosh, I do, ALL THE TIME!
So I let the panel completely dry, then went in with my Arteza professional colouring pencils to add a bit more definition to the leaves and petals. I still wanted to keep that soft, no-line water colouring look though, so I worked very slowly, adding a little at a time until I was satisfied.
Oh, I almost forgot!! I could never have got that teeny tiny, fine writing for the ‘and drink’ part of the sentiment through embossing, so once everything else was done I painted that part on with white gouache.
Then I used a rectangular die from Simon Says Stamp to cut my panel down and popped it up on some Arteza foam tape onto a Kraft card base. I wanted to leave quite a bit of the kraft showing through so I used a 7×5 inch card base.
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