Watercolor Wreath Series - Two

Hello there!  I’m back with the series of original watercolor wreath artwork I’ve been working on.  The first post is HERE in case you want to catch up.  For this trio I used the same 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch size of card, Strathmore watercolor paper, and Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.  

This first card does have the look of Christmas berries, but I think the pop of lime green could make it work for any season.  I’ve stamped the Bible Verse from Stamp Simply’s Words of Encouragement set.  

This card shows off a bit more delicate feel with tiny leaves, pointed petal open blossoms and a sweet palette of colours.  

I did some splattering on this one and the Bible verse is from Stamp Simply, Pastor and Minister Appreciation Scripture Sentiments.  

This last one is all cool blues and greens with heart shaped blossoms and simple lines.  

It’s really fun to play with different types of brush strokes to get unique flower and leaf looks!  

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Watercolor Wreath Series - Two

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.  

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Vibrant Altenew Hibiscus

Storybook Rose

Marcy released a gorgeous rose this week at Power Poppy called Vital Rose that’s absolutely dreamy!  I couldn’t wait to dig into it, and I knew that it would be amazing to watercolour with all of those gorgeous petals and pretty leaves.  So, I printed off the image (onto Arches 80 lb) that included the text, (there’s also a digi version without text) and set to work.  I changed the colour of the image to a light-rust so the lines would fade into the design and work with the warm colours of the rose.  

I’ve been playing a lot with Zig Clean Color Brush Markers, but for this designs, I used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour pans, taking time with washes and glazing to give the petals a multi-tonal look with yellows, oranges, coral and rosy reds.  

One of the fun parts was the working on the lettering.  I think that’s what gives it this “page out of a storybook" illustration quality.  Marcy’s hand lettering is always so amazing, and it was fun to play with my tiny brush and try and let the different washes bleed into each other.  

Because the illustration is just so beautiful, I simply sewed it onto some designer paper from MFT that already has a watercolour wash look to it and it was complete!  

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog

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Storybook Rose