NEGATIVE WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

 Negative painting is when you pick out specific shapes on a completely covered, coloured background, then fill the areas surrounding the shapes with another colour, making the shapes stand out. I used either white acrylic paint pens or oil-based gold pens to outline the shapes. This is generally created at a larger size than the size I work on, with ATCs being only 2.5" x 3.5", and it's always a challenge to translate some of the techniques I try onto this smaller size. I was quite happy with how these turned out, and I have no words; I literally have no words on 5 of these 6 samples (which led to these oh-so-creative titles for each ATC). I wanted the paintings to stand alone without the distraction of words, except for the fish one, as that one needed something in between the waves. 😃🐟

Pot 1

Pot 2

Poppies

Leaves

House

Fish

3D EMBOSSED FLORALS

 There are numerous 3D Embossing Folders available these days, and the variety of florals among them is impressive. I have used watercolour paints (Daniel Smith) to colour my florals that I dry-embossed on 300gsm watercolour Baohong watercolour paper. This is a simple technique that takes advantage of the ability of watercolour paints to become active again with water after they are dry. This creates a very soft-looking background and embossed image and works best with embossing folders that have some open space on them to allow the colour to blend and bleed.

"Leave a little sparkle"


Close-up showing Lisilinka silver accents.

"Shine brightly"

"Possibilities"

"No rain"

"Just breathe

"Cultivate kindness"


"Dream"

(This is a full-size C6 card using the Botanical
3D embossing folder.)

STITCHED WATERCOLOUR

 In my previous life as a costume designer/maker, I had a collection of specialty metallic threads that were used on the costumes. So when I saw someone had used metallic thread as an added accent to a watercolour painting, I just had to give this a go on my ATCs. I love the simple style of the painting that is elevated with the addition of the metallic thread, and as usual, these all look so much nicer in real life. I know this technique can be used with simple stamped designs, but I like that you can paint whatever you want and then embellish it with metallic thread. The thread is doubled, so it shows up more as it is quite thin, and you simply attach it to the back with a little double-sided tape. I used Daniel Smith watercolour paints for all of the painting. I think the amount of white background space also helps to enhance this particular style.
If you click on the picture, you will get a better idea of how the stitching looks.

"Grow with the flow"
(Silver metallic thread)

"Bloom"
(Gold metallic thread)


"I paint flowers"
(Gold & orange metallic thread)

"Life's a painting"
(Gold metallic thread)

"Lookin' sharp"
(Gold metallic thread)

"Be-leaf"
(Gold metallic thread)


I saw some cards on Pinterest and made a couple following the same style. They inspired me to try this technique on ATCs. I did my own stitch designs and the possibilities are endless.

"Possible"

"Ordinary"

MARBLE PAINTING WITH ACRYLIC INKS

The last time we used a marble with inks for a background was in 2014, so I thought it was time to revisit it. It's an easy technique and lends itself to the bigger size as well as ATC size, so it's a good opportunity to create a cover using this technique. I used black acrylic ink for the marble rolling as this ink is permanent when dry, so when you do your watercolours over the top, it's not going to smudge or move. You can pick out individual shapes to colour or, as I've done on a couple of mine and the cover, colour the whole background in a few colours blended together.

"Fa-Cologne"

"Toot toot"


"Not a big fan"

"Dear Future"

"Art"

"Trust"


This is my cover for Technique Book #34. The size is 20cm x 15cm (or 8" x 6").
I've used a white gel pen to make dotted marks within some of the black lines.

STENCIL LIFT-OFF WITH WATERCOLOURS

 One of the reasons I love watercolours so much is that with most of the colours, you can lift off some paint to create lighter areas. This works particularly well with stencils as the following samples show. The beauty of this technique is you don't need to do anything special with laying down your watercolour background, it's just that, a background so slap that colour down. It can be a single colour, some granulating colours or multiple colours. They are all tied together when you use the stencil to remove some of the paint and then add your die-cuts or imagery on top. Gel pens and sparkly paint can also help to elevate these to the next level. I've tried to keep these fairly simple to not detract from the beautiful watercolour paints, particularly some of the granulating or mica shift paints.

"Let's play a game"
(I've wanted to use this hangman charm
for quite a while and I thought it suited
this atc perfectly.)

"Use your wings"
(I kept the watercolour paint more contained
on this background. The paint is a Mica
Supervision granulating paint and splits
into blue and gold. I made the feathers
and the bird from washi tape.)


"Champagne"


"We live but for a moment"
(Only 2 colours of granulating paint were
used for this one with a little metallic gel
pen for the details in the water and weeds.)

"Seas the day"
(The jellyfish are cut from vellum. It's very
difficult to see the shimmer paints used on
this one, trust me, it's very sparkly!)

"Let life surprise you"
(You don't have to cover the whole of the
background with the stencil, just partially
taking away some of the paint works well too.)

WATERCOLOUR FODDER ACCENTS

 I'm always amazed at how a watercolour quick and easily painted subject can turn out to be such a wonderful focal point on an atc or a card. With the addition of black and/or white gel pen markings, then cutting the design out, and raising it up on foam tape, it takes a simple atc to another level altogether. You don't need to be a fantastic watercolour artist either, naive paintings of leaves, mushrooms, flowers, and even child-like houses, will all work. These are so much fun to create you'll want to just keep going until you have a huge stash of fodder that you can use at another time on an atc, in a journal or on a card.

"Ghosts"

A close-up so you can see how I've mounted the
words onto a piece of acetate that is slightly
wider than the background so it is bowed
in the middle and pops up a bit.


"Home"
(I love this quote! 😊)


"Find what you seek"
(This background was one I had made in a previous
class and the colours just worked perfectly for my
leaf and mushroom fodder.)

"Just breathe"
(You can't see it but the leaf on this one has been
crumpled up and raised up higher in some areas
with a double-layer of foam tape to give a very
dimensional shape to the leaf. I spritzed
the back of the watercolour painted leaf to make
it easier to crumple up as it is 300gsm watercolour
paper and is very thick.)

"Choose to shine"

"Keep life simple"

WATERCOLOUR STRIP PAINTING

 This title could be slightly confusing. The watercolour pictures were painted first, then cut into strips and attached to colour-coordinated Gelli prints that show through the gaps in the strips. I used some atc's that I had made in various other classes but if making them for this technique, you need to keep your main imagery towards the centre as the watercolour picture ends up only 5cm wide before you cut it down and you don't want to lose too much detail from your edges. This technique would also be great for a card and you can afford to be a bit more generous with your artwork as you're working on a larger area.

I used Daniel Smith watercolour paints for 3 of these samples, Distress Watercolour Pencils for 2 of them and finally, sparkly gel pens along with Pilot G-Tec C4 coloured gel pens that activate with water for the final one. The moth one with the gel pen colouring was the only one with a stamped image, all the rest were hand painted. 

"Every colour"
(The trees were painted with Distress
Watercolour Pencils then outlined with
a Pilot Black G-Tec C4 gel pen.)


"Collect Beautiful Moments"
(Painted with Daniel Smith watercolours.)


"Live gently"
(Painted with Sodalite Genuine and Hematite
Genuine Daniel Smith watercolour paints
which are both granulating colours.)

"Tomorrow"
(Painted with Daniel Smith watercolours.)


"Small beginnings"
(Painted with Distress Watercolour Pencils.)

"Attitude"
(Stamped image coloured with sparkle gel pens
and Pilot G-Tec C4 coloured gel pens which
bleed when activated with water.)