Handpainted Tulip - Altered Envie

My altered envie partner for July has received the envelope I sent her, so I can share it with you here.

My partner lives in The Netherlands, which is famous for its tulips.  Since my signature flower is the tulip, I decided that would be my theme.  I started by creating my own envelope using a monoprint I made with a Gelli Plate.  I used acrylics to paint my tulip, and let me tell you, that right leaf took a looooong time to get right!  Thank goodness acrylics are very forgiving.

On the back, I wrote a quote by Anaïs Nin:  "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

Thanks for stopping in!  Take a risk and blossom.

Dienstmarke Tulip - Postcard

I love tulips and each spring I can hardly wait for them to push their way out of the ground.  It's a sure sign that spring is just around the corner.  We have early variety tulips that first appeared around February 21 this year and whose buds opened last week on St. Patrick's Day.  These tulips bloom so early that they have even been snowed on, as this picture from March 2009 shows.

Don't the red flowers look pretty against the white snow?  This clump of tulips is still going strong which tells you how hardy they are.

Since I have tulips on the brain right now, I decided to make one the subject of a mixed media postcard.  The look I was going for was a vintage botanical print.  I painted my tulip on 140 lb watercolor paper and used a brown Prismacolor pencil for outlining and shading.  However, I didn't like the way it looked so I stood over the sink and sprayed the paper with water until a lot of the paint and some of the pencil ran off, leaving a muted version of the tulip which I then reworked with more watercolor, colored pencil, distress ink and a sepia-colored artist pen.

I added a scrap of vintage book text and a German postage stamp from the 1920s, then sponged scattered straw and gathered twigs distress ink around the edges.  The Berlin cancellation was stamped with black soot distress ink, which is just about the same color as a real cancellation mark.  The final step was to stencil additional distress ink through a piece of punchinella.

This postcard was popped into a clear envelope and is now en route to a very special person.  It's my way of sending a bit of Midwestern spring from my house to hers.

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Spring!

Supplies:
Strathmore 5x7 hot press 140 lb watercolor postcard; Schmincke Horadam watercolors; Prismacolor Premier pencils; Pigma Micron sepia pen; scattered straw, gathered twigs and black soot distress ink; vintage book text and postage stamp; cancellation image by Stampa Rosa; splatter background stamp by All Night Media; punchinella.

Sketch Practice - Tulip, Day 1

Long story short:  I've determined that in order to progress in my art, I need to learn how to draw again.  So I sat down late last night and started a simple sketch of a tulip based on a photo I found on the internet.  My goal is to draw a little each day, because I will learn and get better only through practice.  I think I worked on this sketch for about 30 minutes.  (You know how easy it is to lose track of time when you're arting.)  This is still a work in progress.

Happy May Day!  Thanks for stopping by.

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.