help with my watercoloring

[charms1976]

Okay. I have downloaded some digi images and have tried coloring with markers and with SU watercolor pencils. For some reason I am not getting the look that alot of other people have created. My hubby(bless his heart) says they are beautiful and look just as good as other peoples but I am not sure. Can you please take a look at my gallery and give me some pointers and suggestions. TIA....Amy

[indyemmert]

I am not a watercolor expert by any means, but I have found that using watercolor paper works the best to be able to blend and layer color. There are a few tutorials on watercoloring in the Resources section here. (You can see the word Resources in the upper right corner; just click on it! The tutorials are listed alphabetically.)

[a1r601]

I am not a watercolor expert either, but personally I don't like using blender pens for watercoloring because for me I can' seem to blend the colors together well and they come out streaky. I've never used any kind of watercolor pencils either so no ideas in that area.

I've been playing with alot of digi images lately too and I've been successful using an aquapainter pen and SU inks to color my images. You just need to heat set the printed image first before coloring and heat set in between the colors if you are blending and heat again when finished coloring.

I personally like to use an aquapainter (this is a pen you can fill with water and works like a brush without the mess). I've never used actual watercolor paper (since I am such a cheapo), but use Georgia Pacific cardstock that you can buy in bulk at Wal-mart. You can get an aquapainter pen at M's (I think they come in different sizes). I only have one size and seems to work just fine.

All I do when I watercolor is use an old CD and use that as my palette (I just rub my color of choice on the CD and use that to take as much or as little color I want). I can rub different colors on the CD. When finished, I simply spray some Simple Green or any type of cleaner and use a towel to clean it off good. I learned this technique from another crafter awhile back.


OR

I use press down on the lid of an inkpad, open it up and use the lid as my palette. I usually stamp or work on a legal pad so that I can use it to brush off any excess color that is on my brush or see how the color is going to look on the image before coloring.

With an aquapainter it is easier to blend colors together, just make sure that your brush isn't too wet before dipping into the ink. All of my cards in my gallery are watercolored.

Hope this helps!

[angelfehr]

I haven't used markers so I can't speak for that technique, but I am a watercolour artist. With the watercolour pencils, or actual watercolours, to the get the effects you see on cards, use watercolour paper and a light touch. When you wet the areas you have coloured with your wc pencil, the pigment will spread and blend. Try colouring a little darker by the lines, then pull the colour into the main area with a wet brush. This will give you a shadow effect that is darker toward the lines of the stamped image.

You don't need an aquapainter to paint with ink - a small watercolour paintbrush will do the same thing. Again, how subtle your effect is will depend on your ratio of water to ink/paint. The more water, the lighter the colour.

Also, if you wet the area you wish to paint first with a clean brush, then touch the paint to the wet area, the colours will flow and blend along the wet paper - no hard edges! You can drop in different colours and they will mix together differently depending on the wetness of the paper.

All of these are actual watercolour techniques and there are many more. You could visit a watercolour web site and take a look at some of their suggested techniques - think about how to adapt them to stamping!

[Dotty]

Quote:

Originally Posted by angelfehr

I haven't used markers so I can't speak for that technique, but I am a watercolour artist. With the watercolour pencils, or actual watercolours, to the get the effects you see on cards, use watercolour paper and a light touch. When you wet the areas you have coloured with your wc pencil, the pigment will spread and blend. Try colouring a little darker by the lines, then pull the colour into the main area with a wet brush. This will give you a shadow effect that is darker toward the lines of the stamped image.

You don't need an aquapainter to paint with ink - a small watercolour paintbrush will do the same thing. Again, how subtle your effect is will depend on your ratio of water to ink/paint. The more water, the lighter the colour.

Also, if you wet the area you wish to paint first with a clean brush, then touch the paint to the wet area, the colours will flow and blend along the wet paper - no hard edges! You can drop in different colours and they will mix together differently depending on the wetness of the paper.

All of these are actual watercolour techniques and there are many more. You could visit a watercolour web site and take a look at some of their suggested techniques - think about how to adapt them to stamping!

Wonderful tips. Your watercoloring is absolutely phenomenal!! Love the work in your Etsy shop!