Hi. Angie here again.  A happy March to everyone!  (I should have said that in the first post, but I forgot.)

I’m still on my watercolour roll, but thought I would share this page from my A4 Art Journal I have done some time ago.

I glued bits of music and dictionary paper onto my cardstock [avoiding the centre as its where my focal image will be] and used Derwent art bars to create the background. Next, I brayered over with a small amount of Gesso. I used Wild Plum Adirondack Colour Wash mixed with a little water and Ranger Mustard Seed Distress Spray Ink in a pipette to create the drips.

I drew my circles for the dream catcher and used a black Posca pen to outline and doodle and other Posca colours to complete.

Printed my sentiment onto tissue paper, cut it out and stuck it onto the page. Stamped and coloured the butterfly then stuck it down.

I cut the feathers from some watercolour paper scraps. Drew the dangles and coloured them in. Then stuck the feathers down.

Hi everyone,

Angie here!

I am now officially the blog lady and I am sooooooo excited!  I really have a passion for art and troll various blogs on a daily basis admiring the various art works. There are so many fabulous artists out there and every day I am inspired. 

Watercolour painting is becoming very popular in all forms, from really realistic to a more free flowing stylized art form which I must say is more my kind of thing. 

I’ve just finished a watercolour workshop with the fabulous watercolour artist, Caryl Park [Find her on Facebook at Passion for Arts and Crafts] and feeling so excited about water colouring.   

Watercolour poppies with a little help from my friend the stencil, is the inspiration for today’s easy project.

Materials and tools 

If you are new to watercolours, I don’t believe you need expensive supplies to start having fun and making art! And, it really depends on the project. If I was creating, say a page to frame for somebody, I would probably use good watercolour paper and good paints and brushes but today I am having fun in my practice landscape art journal so I’m using pretty cheap supplies from Stencil Art.

• Paper: I used heavy weight cartridge paper
• Brushes:   Stencil Art stocks a good variety of watercolour brushes from cheap to the really good ones which are quite expensive. I like using those with a nice round tip for poppies. For this particular project I used a number 8 brush for the petals and a number 1 brush for the stems and leaves.
• Watercolour paint: you don’t have to buy the most expensive kinds to start painting . I used a basic watercolour set. I squeezed mine out into a palette but you can use a white plastic plate for mixing your colours. I used Gamboge Yellow, Yellow Ochre, a touch of Scarlet Lake and Cadmium Red, Cadmium Orange, Rose Madder and a mixture of Apple green and Sap Green for the stems and leaves.
• Uni Posca Paint Marker PC-1M Ultra-Fine – Black and White
• Ranger Distress Ink - Peeled Paint around the edges of the paper seems to always finish it off.
• Two empty yoghurt containers of water for wetting and rinsing brushes.
• Stencil-Art Poppies stencil

Instructions:

Using a HB pencil and the Poppies stencil, I traced the outline onto heavy weight cartridge paper and used an eraser to lighten the lines so that they were just visible. For this image I went over with a pen so that you can see the lines.

I used a mini mister to spray my watercolour palette and then prepped my paint. Using the pencil outline as a guide I picked up two different shades of colour and using not more than two brushstrokes per petal [for the side on poppies] filled in the colour.

Oranges and yellows look nice with pinks and reds so I’ve used warm colours next to each other on the colour wheel and played around with some simple brushstrokes, just trying to stay loose and free and not thinking about it too much.  

For the side on poppies, I started at the outside of the petals and used a lot of pressure so that the bristles splay out, then dragged a little, and lifted the bush up.

I repeated this for all petals varying the colour by picking up more of one colour than the other.

While the petals were still wet, I picked up some sap green on a small brush and painted in the calyx. If the petals are wet enough the green will be drawn slightly into the petal giving the calyx a softer more natural look.

For the full on poppies I used a similar technique but used more brush strokes and did not lift the brush up to the same angle.

I used a combination of greens and a number 1  brush for the stems. The leaves are not difficult to do but I would practice first, same technique as the petals but much smaller strokes. I used a number 1 brush.

I applied my favourite Tim Holtz Distress Ink Peeled Paint around the edges to give the page a finished look.

Last but not least I used my black and white Posca Paint Markers to fill in the poppy seeds and do a bit of doodling around the edges of the poppies, stems and leaf stems. 

I really enjoyed doing this page and I hope you do to. Give it a try!  

Hi Everyone,

I absolutely fell in love with Faber-Castell Polychromos Artist pencils and are so happy to share that it will soon be available in the shop. I use it in conjunction with my Koh-i-Noor Polycolor pencils that is unfortunately only available in 72 colours, whereas the Polychromos are available 120 colours!

Today’s colouring page is from Winged Daydreams by Monique Day-Wilde.

Sprinkle Lime Green  Brusho Crystals on the page and spray with water. Make sure that the page is bone dry before colouring.

 Colour with Koh-i-Noor Polycolor and Polychromos pencils. 

Add final details with Pentel Hybrid Gel Grip Pens.

Hi Everyone, 

Another page done in the colouring-in book "Town Daydreams" by Monique-Day Wilde. This time I used Copic Ciao markers and finished with colouring-in pencils.  

Hi Everyone,

I am still in my "colouring-in phase" and am thoroughly enjoying Monique Day-Wilde's new Colouring-In books.

I love to use all kinds of different art mediums in my colouring-in books, it is a great way to explore and experiment different products.  I find Dede Willingham a great inspiration for using colouring-in books in a whole new way.  

Today's project is from Country Daydreams by Monique Day-Wilde.

I used a wash of Dina Wakley Heavy-body Acrylic Paint (Night) to cover the background. Mixing it with water will thin out the paint so that the stars and other details are still visible, this will also create a uneven mottled effect.

I used a Derwent Waterbrush to pick up colours from Gelato sticks to add a light watercolour wash to the images.  You can use any watercolour paint or acrylic wash for this step.

I coloured in my images with Derwent Coloursoft pencils.  I always use the same technique to colour all my images - from the shadows to the highlights.  Monique already added shading to her images, so this takes the guessing out of where the light source is coming from.   With each lighter shade I add more colour towards the highlight and then blend all the colours with white (you can also use a colourless blender).  I have done a couple of courses from Kit and Clowder - a great resource for colouring in workshops 

Add the background details with a white Posca Paint Markers, this pens are filled with acrylic paint and writes easily over most surfaces.

Colour in the white stars with yellow and add a halo around each star.

Add extra details and a border with Posca Paint Markers.

I just love Monique Day-Wilde's new Colouring-In books - Town Daydreams and Country Daydreams.  The images are beautifully drawn with enough open spaces to add your own doodles.  
I used Koh-i-Noor Polycolor pencils (oil based) to colour this page from Town Daydreams.

Instructions:

Use colours 18 Light Blue, 52 Azure Blue & 15 Ice Blue  to colour each block.  Start with 18 (dark blue) in the corners and blend with lighter blues (52 & 15) to a white highlight.  I also used white to blend the colours.

Use 34 Blue Grey to add shading around each house - this will create depth.  It will bring the houses to the foreground.

Add 24 Pea Green over the background and blend out towards the highlight that will now change to a Turquoise colour.

Use the shading that Monique has already added to the houses to add colour from the darkerst to the lightest. (64 Burnt Ochre, 29 Light Ochre & 41 Banana Yellow).  Most of the times I use three colours - dark, medium and light and blend together with the lightest colour or sometimes white.

Now colour in the roofs (47 Scarlet Red, 30 Red Brown & 9 Apricot Orange) and the rest of the features (32 Natural Sienna, 65 Medium Terracotta &30 Red Brown).  The windows was done with 39 Silver and blended with 1 White.

I used Posca Paint pens PC1-MR in white and black to add the border around the page and other details & doodles.

Hi Everyone,

I am still enjoying my small 150x150mm art journal.  This journals will be available in the shop by the end of the week.  It is stitch bound with a plain chipboard cover so that you can decorate it.  It contains 48 pages of slightly textured Modigliani 200 gsm Mixed Media paper. 

WONDER Art Journal Page

Prepare the pages with white Gesso (let dry) and apply Gelatos in warm colours to the background.  Spread Gelatos with a baby wipe (wet wipe).

Use a wet wipe to remove some of the colour from background through a stencil. (Stencil-Art Starry Night A5 Stencil).

Mix white Gesso and water and apply to the background with a cosmetic wedge - this will lighten the background. 

Cut a picture from a Colouring-in book and glue onto your page with Matte Gel Medium.  

Apply the Gel Medium over the image and use a old credit card or your fingers to remove any air bubbles. Complete the the image with a pencil so that it is spread out over the whole background.

Paint the images with Gesso to create a whole and draw in the lines with a black Posca Paint Marker. (Make sure that the Gesso is completely dry otherwise you will ruin your marker). 

Use Derwent Watercolour and Intense pencils to colour in the images.   Apply a layer of pencil and activate with a wet paint brush (or a waterbrush) and Liquitex Matte Medium.  

I dipped my paintbrush in the Matte Medium to blend the pencil.  This will ensure that the watercolour pencils do not blend with the next layer.  This is quite time consuming but all the layers create a lot of depth.

Apply Ranger Texure Paste with a palette knife through the Stencil-Art Angie's Journaling Words 2 A5 Stencil and leave to dry.  Ranger's Texture Paste can be dried with a Heat Tool.  

Use the blue Derwent Metallic Pencil to add colour to the bottom of the letters.  I wanted to create an ombre effect and applied some white Intense pencil to the top of the letters as well.

Use a black Posca Paint Marker to outline each letter and all the images.  Add shading with a brown pencil and activate with water and matte medium. 

Add details to the images with a white Posca Paint Marker.  I just love my Posca Paint Markers - it writes over anything and are available in different nibs sizes and colours.

Add glitter to the angel wings with the clear Wink of Stella Brush pen. 

Add more details with Ranger Liquid Pearls.