Watercolour Wishes

Today I experimented with using my Distress Inks for some watercolouring. I only have four Distress Ink colours, so whilst I really wanted to colour the flowers a bright, vibrant pink I had to settled for more muted purple tones instead.

I started by folding a card base from some heavy watercolour paper. I then placed the card base in my MISTI and worked out the layout for my stamps. The flowers are both from Altenew’s Wild Hibiscus stamp set, and the butterfly is by Knorr Prandell. Once I had them how I wanted them I stamped them with MFT’s Black Licorice Hybrid Ink. Using the MISTI meant I could restamp them several times to ensure I got a good crisp line on the textured paper.

The three colours I used on the flowers were Spun Sugar, Milled Lavender, and Seedless Preserves. I started with a wash of the lightest using a water brush. I then used a small regular paintbrush to add in shading with the other two colours, concentrating the Seedless Preserves at the centre and the other darkest areas.

For the butterfly I used just two colours. I gave a wash of the Spun Sugar again as my base colour, then used the Seedless Preserve to colour some of the areas of detail on the wings.

With my only other Distress Ink being orange (Spiced Marmalade) I had to look else where for the colours to finish my image. I decided to try to use some of my other inks and see if they would work for watercolouring with. The other inks I have are a generic brand pigment ink that I got cheaply. I tested a green out on a scrap of the watercolour card and it seemed to work, so I decided to use them! First I did a wash of the paler green on the stems and leaf, then used a darker green for details and shadow.

In order to add some context for the images I went around them with a blue ink. I concentrated the colour closest to the images, and allowed it to fade out as I moved further away. The colour is very subtle and almost invisible, but I do think it helps to ground the image and stops them from looking like they are floating as they did before I added it.

Finally I added my sentiment, which is from Avery Elle’s Petal Panel. I stamped it with the same MFT ink, slightly overlapping my taller flower. I then went around some of the letters with my white gel pen to help them stand out from the image.

I enjoyed watercolouring this card and am fairly pleased with the result. I do feel like I am gradually improving with my ability to colour these flowers, which is nice! I should probably get hold of some other flower outline stamps to practice colouring too.

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

Altenew Inspiration Challenge – Photo Inspiration (I was inspired by the gorgeous flowers in this picture. I really wish I had been able to use a beautiful vibrant pink colour scheme, but unfortunately I am limited by the supplies I have available to me!)