Thursday, February 21, 2019

Vibrant Altenew Hibiscus



Today I’ve got something super vibrant and full of saturated colour!  When I was first picking up my watercolours this summer after a long break, I started this design using Altenew’s Hibiscus Bouquet.  It’s a really pretty set with sketchy style outlines of the hibiscus blooms and leaves.  It also includes some multi-step stamping elements if you don’t want to colour the flowers.  I masked and stamped the image and then played around with some washes using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi pans, but I didn’t love how it looked, so I just set it aside in my pile for future cards.  I picked it up again yesterday and added in some deeper, more saturated washes with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, and some reinkers and zowie....its definitely a bold statement!  

I LOVE vibrant colours, but I did second guess myself if this was too much colour, particularly with such a saturated background. But after showing it to my “adjudicating panel” (AKA my family), they thought it was great.  Its very loose, splashy and impressionistic, and it’s growing on me.  It’s always good to stretch yourself with new styles!


I also painted in some shimmer, and splashed some ink and shimmer overtop of the watercolouring, and also added Copic Opaque white to the stamens of the flowers to let them pop.  The sentiment is popped up and accented with a few sequins.  

6 comments:

Conniecrafter said...

It is beautiful, love the colors, I am glad you saved it to work on later!

KarinsArtScrap said...

this is very beautiful Christine
Gr Karin

Pauline said...

Christine this is beautiful! I love the vibrant colours and the loose colouring of the hibiscus! I'm so glad you went back to finishing this image!

Leslie Miller said...

I LOVE the loose, splashy, impressionistic look and large, open stamps like this give you plenty of room to play. It looks fabulous, Christine! Okay, now the Zigs... much more vibrant than Gansai Tambi. I don't have Zigs, but I do have the Spectrum glitter watercolor pens and they're similar, but with glitter. I've heard Zigs fade, but I really don't worry about that on a card. I could talk watercolor with you forever, but I really just wanted to tell you how much I love your work and this gorgeous card!

CherylQuilts said...

Oh my, Christine! Your watercoloring is exquisite! I love the colors you use in your work, and this is amazing! The vibrancy is stunning, and I love the looseness of your watercoloring and agree with your "adjudicating panel" (hehe...they are the best!). It is perfect and makes me want to watercolor today. I love it all and especially love the black mat with the vibrant teal base. WOW!! Warm, sunny hugs! xoxo

Stacy Morgan said...

Christine this is gorgeous. I like the flower and your coloring is fabulous.