And Then It Popped...

 Yesterday I showed you another watercolour paint doodle I was working on and today I got out my Microns and Pitt pens and added some black doodling over the paint.

I just love how it makes it pop.  I've also added some additional dimension using my Inktense  pencils to add some shading and highlights here and there.

The final step was to add the words and since the image ended up reminding me of a garden path, that lead to the words I chose.  In hindsight, I wish I had written the text in larger, bolder letters, but what's done is done.

If you look at the close ups, you'll also see that I added some text, using a Micron 01 between the leave and petals on the right hand page too.


It was fun drawing the little pebble circles within the larger circles.  I love doing that when I free motion stitch so I decided to add it in my doodle too.

The photos don't really show it, but I love the contrast between the regular watercolours and the Twinkling H2Os.  It just give a bit of glimmer and pop to some areas.

Thanks for your visit.  I don't say it enough, but I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by!  Have a fabulous week!

More Watercolour Doodling

Several days ago, I posted about my first attempt at paint doodles and I said that I was way out of my element.  However, I'm discovering that this is really a lot of fun.  As I was working (playing) with this one, I found I lost all track of time, in a good, relaxing sort of way.

For those of you familiar with Joanne Sharpe's 'Color Love' class, this is lesson 11, so the next step will be getting out my Pitt pens and Inktense so that I can doodle over the doodles with fine black lines and add another level of depth with the Inktense.  I love the idea of adding the layers...

But, it's 4 degrees C here today (that's 39F for my US friends), which is crazy for mid-January, so I'm off for a long, lazy walk with my 'little old lady', Casey (my 12 1/2 yr. old Golden).  I'll post another shot of this when I get the next step finished.

Watercolour Paint Doodles

As you may know from reading some of my previous posts, I am taking Joanne Sharpe's Color Love 101 online class.  In the last couple of days I've been exploring the whole idea of doodling with a paint brush and watercolours.  I discovered very quickly that I am way out of my comfort zone on this activity!

I started with a cool colour palette since I love working with blues and greens.  I added a bit of yellow to warm it up some and give it a bit more of a pop, but it's certainly not great.  However, that was just my first attempt...

My second try was with a warmer palette, bringing in reds, pinks, and oranges, but still using the green for some contrast.  I think that my lines are too 'up tight'.  Somehow I need to relax so I can get a more easy flow to my lines.  Of course, if I truly learned to relax I wouldn't be me, now would I ;o)
You'll notice I included my favourite spiral lines...

 

As a complete aside, I had this background done on a page from many months ago, and I recently saw this wonderful quote by Mark Twain so I used my correction pen and wrote it out so I wouldn't forget it.

April Calendar Art Journal

Yesterday I was able to finish the watercolour painting of the April calendar page.  I was a bit unsure about the 'cheesy' idea of using raindrops for the journalling shapes, but I'm really pleases with how the page turned out.

I used a 'light' hand lettering font since April is a month of new beginnings.  The long dark winter is over and everything just seems to lighten up.  

 I found this cute little girl in a magazine add (in a March issue from 2009...sometimes being a bit of a pack rat comes in handy) and I thought she'd be perfect since I used to love playing out in the rain.  Realistically it would never have been warm enough to do this in April, but it still makes me smile.

 I also found these two pairs of legs so I gave a couple of the raindrops legs.  And, since they had legs, I also drew in a couple of pairs of eyes so they can see where they're going :o)









In addition to drawing in little lines, circles, triangles and squares to represent rainfall, I wrote, in very tiny letters, using a Micron 01 pen, a variety of phrases such as, "it's raining cats and dogs; rain, rain go away, come again another day; it's raining, it's pouring the old man is snoring..." etc.

I used the Peerless watercolours to do this page.  They're wonderful to work with!  I wasn't sure what to use as my background colour since it was raining but I didn't want it to be too dull and dreary.  I settled on the Bismark Brown (one of the colours in the Joanne Palette Colors - a palette made up of 15 colours specifically selected by Joanne Sharpe for her Color Love online class) and I couldn't be happier.  It's a lovely warm colour, yet not too bright for my rainy day page.

March Calendar Journal

The March calendar page is ready to go.  I decided to play with the technique I learned in Joanne's Colour Love class using my Tombow markers.

I love the bright, vibrant colours they give you!...perfect for March when the world still seems to be a bit dull and dirty as winter lingers on and you're yearning for the bright colours of Spring.  The transition from the flat black and white page to the coloured page where all of a sudden those triangles seem to float above the surface is just so much fun.

 I was inspired by a comment left on my February calendar journal post by Danielle, in which she said she was considering using triangles for one of her calendar pages.  I loved the idea (since I tend to gravitate toward circles) and thought they'd be perfect for March.  They sort of remind me of little kites and that image seems to remind me of March winds.  Although, any kite flying I've ever done has been in the warmer summer months...



Linking up with Orange You Glad It's Friday

Playing With Colour

I decided to sign up for Joanne Sharpe's Color Love 101 in an effort to learn more about using some of the wonderful, colourful watercolours, markers and other media I have in my studio.  I've always been a little afraid of watercolour paints in particular, so I hope that this gives me some knowledge about how to make the most them.

This first image is a page I did using watercolour paints and Tombow markers.  It already has some dimensionality showing, but after playing a little more with my Intense pencils, pencil crayons and my trusty 'White Out' pen, I'm happy with the bright, crisp colours and the 3-D effect I've been able to achieve.  Wow.  To think this is just the first lesson and I'm already feeling more confident!