Love One Another - Home Decor Watercolour

We’re back with another brand new illustration from Power Poppy in our 5 Days of Digis Kickoff!  Today it’s the spring gardeners dream, Love One Another.  

As soon as I saw this image I let out a gasp!  Not only does it combine some of my favourite spring flowers in a spectacular way, I also love the verse included.  We want that to be a hallmark of our family.  We all need that reminder of living out love for toward each other.   I think it is incredibly beautiful!  So, as I did with the image yesterday, this lovely digital got a super-size treatment and I made another 8 x 10 piece for our home, printed on Arches Cold Press 90 lb paper.

I took a few days to watercolour this one so that the layers of glazing could show through the work, and you’d get the sense of a depth of colour.  Watercolouring is done with a mix of Daniel Smith and Gansai Tambi watercolours.  I’ll admit the first few layers, I had my doubts that I could make it work, but I’m so pleased with how it finally came together.  I still think I paint a bit too “tight” and need to continue to practise on making it a bit looser, but I love the vibrance I was able to achieve and how cheerful it is.  On long winter days it will be a good reminder of spring coming.  

I’ll show you a few closeups of some of the elements.  I was able to give that luna moth some fun colour that I’m really pleased with, and even used my tiny #0 brush to lightly feather in the detail to his antennae.  

I looked up some colouring for beetles and found a fun one (as much as beetles can be fun), that was an iridescent teal with bronze.  Well, my Gansai Tambi Watercolours have a gold/bronze metallic shade that was perfect for making him come to life.  I also had a lot of fun with the caterpillar (I made him to look like a monarch caterpillar) on the bottom right which you can just catch a glimpse of.  

I gave a little varied colour treatment to the sentiment to make it sing.  I love this version of the verse from John 13:34.  "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” (NLT).  Oh, I hope our lives continue to be characterized by love.  Tender, self-sacrificing, relentless, hope-filled, believing-in kind of love.  

Here is the image which comes with or without the sentiment, be sure to check it out HERE.

And now, more sneak peeks of this beauty can be found with the Bloom Brigade and Instant Gardeners HERE:
Christine (you are here)
Stacy
Rhea
Barbara
Cheryl 
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