Evolution of a Tulip: from Sketch to Watercolor to Mixed Media

Confession:  I did not sit down at my craft table a single time last week!  Maybe I needed a break after the marathon sessions working on my mom's scrapbook the week before.  Maybe I wanted to enjoy the beautiful fall weather we've been having.  At any rate, I finally sat down last night and to jump-start my creativity, I decided to play with my watercolors.  I thought about using them to create some sympathy cards that I need.  But I really just wanted to experiment, so that's what I did.

To start, I got online and found this How to Draw a Tulip video on YouTube.  I love tulips and for years they were my signature flower.  I watched the video and told myself, "You can do that."  (We all need encouragement, right?  Even if it's from within our own heads!)  So while watching the video a second time, I lightly sketched a tulip on drawing paper.  (Unfortunately, I forgot to make a scan of my pencil drawing before proceeding to the next step.)

Then, like in the video, I went over my pencil drawing with a Sharpie, modifying and refining the various shapes. Once I was happy with that, I transferred my sketch to watercolor paper using a pencil and transfer paper.  I just guessed how to do this, vaguely remembering doing something like this when I was a kid, and miraculously it worked!  (And, once again, I forgot to take a scan of this step.)

Since I had done a transfer, my tulip was now a reverse image of the original sketch.  Using watercolors, I painted my tulip.  Overall I thought it was okay, but a little blah.  So I pulled out a fine point black artist pen and added further refinements and shading.

And here, in less than an hour believe it or not, is my tulip!  I am super pleased with how it turned out.  It's much better than I expected.  And then I decided to quit for the night, as I want time to think about how I want to finish this.  I can't simply have a tulip floating in mid-air, but I'm not sure how I want to ground it or frame it.  So for now, I will leave it alone until another day.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great Monday!

Supplies:
Strathmore 80 lb drawing paper; Staedtler Mars Lumograph 6B pencil; Sharpie fine point black marker; Strathmore tracing paper; 140 lb watercolor paper; Prismacolor 2H pencil; Winsor and Newton travel watercolor set; Cotman no. 5 round watercolor brush (it came with the travel watercolors); Faber-Castell fine point PITT artist pen in black.

8th Grade Graduation - Scrapbook Page

My mom had a high school class reunion this weekend, so I've been working on updating the scrapbook I started for her five years ago before their last reunion.  We've been gradually adding more old photos, including photos from the various reunions they've had.  I even had to start a second book (and buy extra refill pages) to accommodate everything. 

One of the "new" old photos I added this time around is a snapshot of my mom on her 8th grade graduation day.  She's standing outside the farmhouse where she grew up, in a spot they often used to take photographs. Since we have just one photo from that milestone, I used a more modern layout and design.  I layered several lovely Valentine papers by Authentique to frame the photo.  The numbers were die-cut on the Cuttlebug.  I'm really pleased with how this page looks:  fresh and sweet.

Happy Fall Equinox!

Supplies:
White and black cardstock by Bazzill; patterned papers and word sticker by Authentique; Cuttlebug die-cut numbers; oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities; small oval punch by Stampin' Up.

Elusive Ghost - 4x4

Here's another haunted Halloween chunky.

This one started with some scraps of torn patterned paper that I dry-brushed with white acrylic paint.  I then added some vintage Czech book text, stenciling with distress ink, a stamped crackle background, and a distressed rub-on.  The bat was stamped on plain vanilla cardstock, colored with pencils, trimmed closely, and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder for dimension.  I added a layer of Crackle Accents to the tree branch for even more texture.  The English book text was found in my favorite1920s novel.

Wow!  This is my 500th post.  That does not seem possible.  When I started this blog, I wondered whether I'd be able to keep it up.   Guess I surprised myself (lol).  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies:
Medium weight chipboard coaster; patterned papers by Authentique; titanium white acrylic paint; Dylusions and Heidi Swapp stencils; vintage photo and dusty concord distress inks; My Mind's Eye distressed rub-ons; vintage book text; crackle background stamp (unknown); Stazon black ink; bat stamp from Oxford Impressions; Stampin' Up very vanilla cardstock; Prismacolor Premier pencils; odorless mineral spirits; Versamark ink; clear embossing powder; Crackle Accents; dark and white charcoal pencils; Adirondack black acrylic paint dabber; soft gel medium.

Trio of Pears - Watercolor

I'm taking another stab at learning to watercolor paint by taking a class offered through our city parks and recreation department.  And of course, the first lesson in the class is the one that is the hardest for me:  value!  Value refers to the relative darkness and lightness of a color.  It's those contrasts that give an image shape and which create depth and distance.  My problem is keeping the light values.

After a practice exercise in atmospheric perspective (which I don't think I did very well), we had a little over an hour to paint whatever we wanted based on a photo or sketch of our choice.  I wanted to keep it simple so I had found a photograph online of three pairs against a white background.  And here's my rendering of said pears.

I lost some of the highlights on the two pears on the left, but overall I'm pretty pleased with this first painting.  At least you could tell they were pears, right?

Have a fabulous day!

Have Courage - Moo Bookmark

I'm putting together a care package for someone very dear to me who suffers from a serious and chronic illness.  There's not much I can do but offer encouragement and send little things to brighten her day.  She has told me more than once how much she cherishes the cards and other things I make for her, so this time I'm including a moo-sized bookmark in her package.

The base of the moo is a distressed bingo card.  The sweet girl from Artistic Outpost was colored with Prismacolor pencils before being adhered to the background.  It's not super noticeable, but at the bottom I added a Tim Holtz rub-on that says "have courage."  Once the moo was done, I sealed it in a self-laminating pocket (the type you can buy to make your own luggage tags), before adding the eyelet and ribbon.  This will help protect it as I'm sure she will actually use it as a bookmark.

I'd like to welcome my new followers!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Supplies:
Chipboard bingo card; white acrylic paint; Stazon dove gray ink; splatter pattern stamp by All Night Media; girl image from Artistic Outpost; black Stazon ink; whisper white cardstock from Stampin' Up; Prismacolor Premier pencils; odorless mineral spirits; Tim Holtz rub-on; charcoal pencil (peat and medium); Adirondack espresso acrylic paint dabber; large eyelet; thin ribbon; Fray-Check; self-laminating pouch; corner rounder punch.

E.E. Forrest, Druggist - 4x4

Here's another 4x4 chunky with the theme haunted Halloween.  It has so many details and loads of texture.  And this chunky even involved FIRE!  I lightly singed the edges of the prescription pad in a couple of places.

Have a wonderful weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies:
Medium weight 4x4 chipboard coaster; vintage book text; patterned paper by Authentique; white acrylic paint; crackle background stamp (unknown vendor); Stazon black ink; very vanilla cardstock from Stampin' Up; Ranger picket fence distress crackle paint; peeled paint, antique linen, vintage photo, and black soot distress ink; rubber stamps: Hero Arts (skull), prescription pad (Artistic Outpost), bottle, label and mortar/pestle (Oxford Impressions); Prismacolor Premier pencils; odorless mineral spirits; dark charcoal pencil; clear embossing powder; Glossy Accents; Crackle Accents; Adirondack black acrylic paint dabber; soft gel medium.

Test Post - I Love My Jean Collage

I don't know exactly what I did, but I was not able to get into my Blogger account to post!  Let me tell you, I was a little panicked.  And the list of blogs I follow?  Gone!  This was truly a case of "I know just enough to be dangerous."  After more than a few harrowing moments and several attempts to reset and recover everything, I think I have the problem fixed.  Whew!  I figured I better test it by posting something.

This is a collage I created back in 2011 when I took an online class.  It's still one of my favorites that unfortunately, gets forgotten because it's hidden away in a journal.  I'm thinking about cutting it out of the journal so I can display it somewhere.





Thanks for stopping by and please come again!  (Hopefully I'll be back, too.)

Ace of Skulls - 4x4

As usual I used a lot of different products to create this layered, distressed piece.  (You can see a complete list of supplies below.)  The skull is a rubber stamp by Inkadinkado.  It's wearing a Grungeboard crown that I colored with distress ink and painted with crackle paint.  I also used crackle paint on the background to help age it and give it some texture.  And here's something fun that I discovered:  the moon glows in the dark!!  It's a Martha Stewart sticker that I've had for a couple of years, and I never knew that.  It's pretty cool.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fabulous day.

Supplies:
Medium weight 4x4 chipboard coaster; patterned papers by Authentique; vintage Czech book text; titanium white acrylic paint; Heidi Swapp stencil; rusty hinge, vintage photo and antique linen distress ink; Ranger white distress crackle paint; skull stamp by Inkadinkado; Crackle Accents; Ranger archival black ink; Stampin' Up whisper white cardstock; Prismacolor Premier pencils; odorless mineral spirits; Martha Stewart stickers (moon and bat); old playing card; Tim Holtz Grungeboard crown; self-adhesive numbers (unknown); black Dresden trim; medium charcoal pencil; Pitt black artist pen; Adirondack black and copper acrylic paint dabber; Golden gel medium.

Birthday Salute

I created this card for my brother whose birthday is coming up in a few days.  One of his hobbies is studying World War II, so I wanted to make a card that evoked the feeling of that era.

I started by choosing my color palette:  navy blue, dark red, and ivory (the colors in the photo are a little off).  The little tyke from Artistic Outpost was colored with Prismacolor Premier pencils and distress inks, and he is positioned there partly to cover up some lyrics on the flag stamp that I didn't think worked for a birthday card.  I kept the flag image neutral so that the eye is drawn to the little boy.  The red cardstock was embossed with stars and then sponged with vintage photo distress ink to make the stars more visible. For the final touches I went old school:  distressed paper edges and bronze brads.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.

Supplies:
Navy blue and red cardstock by Bazzill; very vanilla cardstock from Stampin' Up; stamps from Artistic Outpost; Ranger archival black ink; Prismacolor Premier pencils; odorless mineral spirits; vintage photo and frayed burlap distress inks; Cuttlebug stars embossing folder; bronze brads; pop-dots.

2013 Art Calendar Challenge - September

Since I had so much fun making cucumbers for last month's calendar, I decided this month to try my hand at painting tomatoes.  Our garden is just exploding with delicious red and yellow tomatoes; we're eating them every day (sometimes for lunch and dinner both!).  This time I used tube watercolors and paint brushes, rather than watercolor pencils and a water pen.  I find working with the brushes more challenging and I need the practice, as I've signed up for a watercolor class that starts next week.

This calendar began with a vibrant background of turquoise and chartreuse spray inks that I chose to compliment the tomatoes.  I used some store-bought as well as homemade stencils (leftover die-cut items from another project), and toned down some of the color by stenciling white acrylic paint through punchinella.  The chickenwire stamp adds additional, garden-related interest (we've had to use it to keep the rabbits away from certain flowers and hostas).

Happy Labor Day to my American followers!  I hope you're enjoying the long weekend.

Supplies:
Strathmore 9x12 Visual Journal with 140 lb watercolor paper; white gesso; assorted vintage papers and sheet music; Heidi Swapp stencils; Heidi Swapp chartreuse spray ink; Dylusions vibrant turquoise spray ink; punchinella (sequin waste); titanium white acrylic paint; Ranger black archival ink; chickenwire stamp from Oxford Impressions; large alphabet stamps by Wordsworth; small alphabet stamps by Studio G (Michaels); date stamper by Smash; salty coean, barn door, and rusty hinge Distress Inks; Schmincke Horadam Aquarelle watercolors; assorted watercolor brushes; Pitt sepia artist pen; Derwent ocean deep charcoal pencil; patterned papers from Stampington and Company; Golden regular gel medium (matte).