Simple Watercolor card tutorial - Inspiration Journal

Hi!

Today is my turn to share some inspiration at the Inspiration Journal and since I've had some questions about watercoloring lately I thought I could do a little tutorial:

A lot of people think watercolor is a difficult media and even though I paint quite a lot I totally agree (-: – but it doesn’t have to be difficult. I’ll show how easy it is to create a landscape scene that I think will be appreciated by the reciever no matter what age or gender.

I start out by wetting my watercolor paper – if you use a 140 lb paper there is no need to stretch it, but if your paper is thinner than that you might want to tape it to a cardboard before you start to prevent it from bulging while you’re painting.

Pic 2

When the paper is still wet I  add the sky/cloud colors so they spred on the wet paper and create realistic looking cloudes; I like Ultramarine mixed with a little bit of paynes grey or burt sienna for this. I let that dry completely  before I go on with the next step.

Then I simply paint stripes of different colors to create mountains, hills, fields and grass, making sure I use cool colors for the mountains and hills and warmer colors for the grass and fields that are closer. This is an easy way to create distance in a painting and especially important in a simple scene like this where there isn’t much else to guide the eye.

I used mixes of ultamarine and viridian for the distat hillsa and then raw sienna, burnt sienna and burnt umber for the fields and grass. For the very darks I mix ultramarine with burnt umber. You can of course choose any colors you like but try to stick to a limited number of colors – that way it is easier to create harmony in your painting.

Pic 3

I then spatter some darker colors (ultramarine mixed with burnt umber)  to the bottom to create a bit of texture.  Make sure you protect the rest of the painting with a piece of scrap paper before doing this!

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You can of course also use stamps to create leaves or plants. In this example I’ve used Paper Smooches Botanicals 2.

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When I’m happy with my painting it is time to “frame” it. I used Lawn Fawn’s wonderful  stitched rectangles for this. I put a smaller die inside a larger one and use washi tape to keep them in place like that when I diecut them.

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I then adhere my little painting to a cardbase, stamp a sentiment underneath and then adhere the frame using foam adhesive.

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Supplies I used to create this card: Winsor Newton’s watercolor paints, Paper Smooches Botanicals 2, Lawn Fawn Dies; Stiched Rectangles, Lawn Fawn Stamps; # Awesome,Watercolor paper (daler rowney)

The supplies I used for this card can be found at   Inspiration Emporium.

Follow the links below and use my code peppermint to save 10% .

Dies:  Lawn Fawn    

Stamps: Lawn  Fawn   Paper Smooches 
Ink;  Archival Jet Black
Paints or markers; Winsor Newton water colors
Adhesive; Plus Glue tape  Glue Dots   Foam adhesive; EK tools

I also want to point out that US shipping is always just $5 and international shipping is ONLY $10! I just LOVE that!!!!

Have a great day, hugs, Karin