Today’s coloring will be fairly quick since we’re focusing mainly on the background. The poppies were watercolored in the same manner that was outlined in last Monday’s post here.
I used Flourishes’ Poppy Patch for the main image just because they’re so darn pretty and the set provides a good variety of images for composing a painting. They’re colored with Groovy Guava and shaded with Pixie Pink which gives them a nice pinkish-salmon color.
The background was accomplished by sponging inks on wet paper and then brushing over them with a clean wet brush to further blend and soften the colors. It’s a very easy way to do a background.
I’d like to start with just a photo of the tools I used for this painting:
- Sponge daubers — Fits on your finger like a thimble
- Wedge — It doesn’t have to be a wedge, but it’s a nice, dense foam. I really don’t know why it comes in a wedge shape. I pinch it in my fingers to sponge with it.
- Flat brush — For painting over the background inks to blend
- Smaller brush — This is what I used for painting the poppies and for some of the smaller areas of the background
The first step is to stamp the poppies in waterproof ink — I used Jet Black Stazon. Stamp them again to create masks — I used Eclipse Masking Tape. It’s very thin and sticks to your image with a repositionable adhesive. This is the image stamped and masks applied:
Begin by brushing over the paper in the area to be sponged with a clean, wet brush. It only needs to be damp, not totally saturated. This simply helps the paper absorb the ink more efficiently. When applying several colors to a background, always start with the lightest color. Sponge a drift of pink over the sky area. Leave an area on the bottom part of the panel for creating a hillside.
Sponge blue next, filling in some of the empty areas and overlapping the pink a little.
Fill in the rest of the white areas of the sky with lavender and overlap the pink and blue.
To save time I’m showing one photo of the lower area of the background. I did the same kind of sponging here, but with light green, dark green and purple in that order. It’s rather dark and all the ink colors don’t show as well as in the sky. It’s probably not even necessary to use that many colors, but that’s what I did — I was just making this up as I went along.
Once all the inks have been applied, use a clean, damp sponge, such as the wedge pictured above to press all over the background. This will further blend and soften the inks. If so desired, use a clean, wet brush to paint over any area that appears to have too much color to suit you. If you wet an area with the brush and then blot it with a paper towel it will lift some of the ink. The brush can also be used to blend the inks even more if you desire yet more softness. You’ll maintain the sponged look but it will become rather soft and hazy. The photo below shows the image with the masks removed.
Paint the poppies now and begin the finishing touches. Again, please refer to this tutorial for painting the poppies. When you compare the painted poppies in this photo with the previous photo, you’ll notice a slight shading around the poppies. Naturally, the poppies aren’t casting a shadow on the sky, but the subtle aura gives them a presence that would be otherwise lacking. They need to “displace” the air around them, in a sense. As described in last week’s watercolor tutorial, to create the aura, or “glow”, wet the area first, then dab with ink which will disperse, or blend, into the wet area. I used lavender ink for the aura to keep it very subtle. Where the poppy rests against the dark area, I used dark purple (Eggplant) for the aura. Again, it’s very subtle but it makes a difference.
Also, notice the glow of light along the horizon and the right edge of the lower poppy. This was done with Saffron ink in the same manner used to create the aura, or glow.
Finally, turn your painting into a card and send it to someone special! I matted my painting on Naturals White, tied on some pretty ribbon and float mounted it on foam tape against a background of Artichoke textured cardstock and an Eggplant card base.
I hope this is helpful and I really hope it doesn’t appear as though I hurried through it as much as it felt like I did. Whew! By the time I finished this it was getting late and I have to get up early in the morning for work. I’d love to think that those of you who would like to do this sort of painting are perhaps feeling encouraged by seeing the process outlined and realizing you can do it, after all. Start with a simple image – you don’t have to do a whole landscape your first time out. Please let me know if you give it a try. I’d be so happy to see anything you create. Have a wonderful day!
I dedicate this card to my friend, Sharon, who has just made a brave and difficult decision and I’m proud of her. She’s an inspiration, not only in the execution of her stamp art, but in her life choices. You can read her post here.
