I cannot watercolour...
 

To save my life! I read the threads....I tried the layering...I tried markers, reinker, pad ink, watercolour pencils...

....And it still looks a blobby horrid mess! Can someone just come and teach me? LOL!

Anyone else have this watercolouring handicap?

I'm with you! I can stay in the lines, but so far have had no luck with the beautiful shading that so many folks can do.

You may be trying "too" hard, Jessica. ;)

I use the "slop" method.

I find "carefully" watercolored images look bland and un-painterly to my own eye, so this is a matter of personal preference.

My favorite method is using a waterbrush and either watercolor pencils or crayons. I also typically use Palette Hybrid Noir or Staz-On Jet Black as my preferred bleedproof inks for waterolor.

Take care that your brush is not too wet--keep paper towel or tissue handy to blot when needed.

One cardinal rule of stamping in general, that I find helpful when watercoloring as well: Lay down your lightest colors first. Then, come back in with your darker colors.

Allow the color to drift a little outside the lines here and there--don't worry about keeping it confined all the time.

If you have to paint two different colors next to each other, muddiness will occur unless you let the first color you laid down dry, before bringing in the next. When I'm in a hurry, I speed dry it with my heat tool, so I can move on with applying the next color. Again, if your brush is too wet, however, you may end up with muddy colors, so check that brush.

Leave some white areas--whereever you want highlight. Intensify the color in areas where you want shadow.

I have no formal training in watercolor--or art even, for that matter--so, I'm sure my method is rather "unorthodox". . . but, it works for me! :mrgreen: *chuckle*

Julie's given some great advice (surprise, surprise :) ). Another thing is to use watercolor paper. It's so much easier.

I will bake endless chocolate chip chiffon cakes if you will come and be my Yoda. Jeanne....this goes for you too. ;)

My 10 yr old dd can watercolor better than me! LOL!
Thanks for the tips Julie!

I loved the look of watercolor but mine looked terrible just using the aquapainter and ink from pads. Thanks to someone here at SCS, I've figured it out. I have watercolor wonder crayons and I use an aqua painter to lift the color directly from the crayon. I use the flat bottom end. This is my favorite. The other way that works well for me is to color the image with the watercolor crayon then blend it with the blender pen. I love to watercolor now as each time I do it my technique improves!

I am watercolor challenged too! I finally gave up and went to the blender pen and straight marker route. I use Whisper White and that works the best for blender pens.

I may switch tools and try again, I used SU!s aquapainter, but got way too much water without even squeezing. Maybe switching to a watercolor brush will do the trick... so much to do and so little time to make cards! Hugs,

It does work better if you don't try too hard. I also use the watercolor crayons and the aqua painter. Once you get the hang of it it is a lot of fun. It is harder for me to control the color when I have tried the reinkers, I definately need more practice with them, but I find I get more intense colors with the refills (and more chance of the color clumping in one spot). Just keep your hand and arm relaxed and start out light, you can always add more color.

Lots of great suggestions already, but here's my two cents worth. This is what I do.

One way I color is to squeeze ink pad lid together to deposit ink on the inside of lid. I pick up this color up with aquapainter. I color the image from the edges inwards, always leaving a bit of white space. If its a small area, I use a small paint brush dipped into water and then pick up color from ink pad lid, swipe the flat side of a watercolor crayon or color first with watercolor pencils, again depositing most color just inside the lines and then pulling it towards the middle, leaving some white space. I always dab the aquapainter on scrap paper or across the back of my hand to make sure its not dripping too much before I start coloring.

There is no right or wrong way, its just a matter of finding what method works best for you. Try these different ways and see what you think. Good luck to you. I hope you find a method that you like b/c coloring in the image is definitely half the fun IMHO....brings out the inner child in me LOL!

Im going to Michaels tonight....mebbe I will pick up some watercolor crayons just to try...

Oops! I just assumed watercolor paper was being used. Yes, the paper you use makes a GINORMOUS difference in the results. Watercolor paper, Fabriano/Arturo, etc. are designed to accept that kind of moisture. Other card stocks will usually give sub-standard results. Not always, but, usually, at least, in my experience.

Cryogen White does take watercolor pretty well without pilling, and it has a pretty sheen to it, too!

Chocolate chip chiffon cakes???? Endless????

http://www.millan.net/minimations/sm...roolsmiley.gif

That is a wickedly tempting offer! :shock:

I too am 'watercolor challenged', so really appreciate all the great tips from Julie & Jeanne above. Thanks very much. I especially love the 4 'sketches' sets I have but use them less than I'd like to because of the difficulty I have in coloring them. One thing I have found helpful is to look at the samples in the Idea Book/catty and also in the galleries for those images. I have a long way to go though ...! Thanks again for all the help.

I'm pretty good at it.....hehe.

Everyone's suggestions are right on the nail.....just one more....get yourself a pad of watercolor paper and just PLAY around with it!! When I took an art class in watercoloring, we literally would play around with "what happens when I wet the paper first and add this" or "what happens if I do that" type of thing. Forget about making the image look "right" for now. Just get the feel of "what happens" and THEN you can start practicing on your images!!

I've been stalkin' to see if you throw in Appletinis! ;) That should bring Julie just a runnin'!!!

I'm with Julie and Jeanne, great tips. So here are a few more, get a 40% coupon for Michaels and get a pad of watercolor paper. To begin with concentrate on method and technique. I heard Julie say here before that lots of attempts have ended in the trash bin....and paper does have 2 sides. So don't stress about...have a appletini and just color. I took a look at your gallery and you are very talented....keep going!

I agree with Julie that the Palette Noir or Burnt Umber is my ink of choice. Try "laying in" a lite coat of water from you aqua pen in the area that you will be working . This will allow your ink to "float" as you begin, this can actually help you to get that soft real water color look. Practice makes perfect and I don't know that has reached perfection yet. If I am using my water color crayons I just pick up color and test it on a side of the paper to check the intensity, hen begin coloring in the area.

All the mediums, re inkers, lifting ink from the tops of you pad, after you have given it a gentle squeeze, but best of all I love my SU Watercolor Crayons. Sometimes I have even been known to add a bit more shading by cheating and using one of my Tria -panatone- markers in a shade of gray to add depth or using Prismacolor pencils in some areas.

Good luck....PM me if you like I would love to see what you think is so bad!

glad you started this thread I feel this way too but I think its the paper mostly best get myself some good paper

Did someone say appletinis?

I swear I distinctly heard someone say appletinis.


http://www.millan.net/minimations/sm...idisaythat.gif

..... sip .....

Thanks for the great tips Julie!! How about I make you some yummy frog-eye salad?? :)

Oh, I *adore* frog-eye salad! Dang, you guys all have me salivating!!! :p

Frog Eye Salad! I have made that in years....I'll have get the cookbook out and make it again! Yes Julie you did hear appletinis.....I may even have to give up the coloring and have a appletini in honor of Julie....no other reason, unless you want to join me here in sunny and very warm Pensacola where our beaches are white as snow. Some yummy salad....oh it's all too tempting!

I was never happy with my watercolouring so I went on a class recently. The tutor said definitely to use watercolour paper and another great tip was to apply water to your image before you colour - just to dampen it though rather than to make it wet. I found that made a big difference. We used watercolour pencils and Marvy pens on the class and used a plain white tile as a palette to mix our colours.

OK - Brit here - what the heck is frog eye salad??!! I'm trying to think what it could be - and coming up blank. Sounds kind of awful but is probably scrummy - right?

Is no-one going to tell me what frog eye salad is - please? *sniff *

“A creamy pineapple juice and egg dressing is cooked up for this incredible fruit and pasta salad, and when it 's combined with pineapple tidbits, mandarin oranges, pasta and whipped topping, the end result is smashing. Serves twelve.”-- http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Frog-Ey...d/Reviews.aspx

I was wondering the same thing! I was imagining something green and sticky! Now that I have seen the recipe that Julie kindly linked us to, I remember having this before. My grandma used to make it, but she called it marshmallow salad - to each his own, I suppose!

Ahhhh, thank you so much Julie, you're a star! :D

Well, it sure is an unusual recipe.........I reckon I won't be in a rush to try it out LOL!

It's quite scrummy, truly! Rather like a dessert kind of salad, than a "salad" by traditional definition.

It's one of my favorites! We'll make you some, if you come to visit, OK?! :-D

Fooooooood.

No...bad Jess....watercolouring. I bought a small pad of Strathmore watercolour paper today...just a notebook size pad because I don't have stamps bigger than that....

So we shall see.

can't wait to see what you come up with

Julie, it's a deal! :mrgreen: Thank you!