Tuesday Tips - Watercoloring with an Aqua Painter

The tip for this week is about how to watercolor with an Aqua Painter.

This card utilizes a birthday-themed Stampin' Around wheel (it's fun to use these wheels & is a nice change of pace).  The Pun Fun stamp set bird-day image is stamped in Black Stazon ink onto Stampin' Up watercolor paper and the image is watercolored with an Aqua Painter.  I have added eyelets (non S U) with a Crop-o-Dile.

Rich Razzleberry is blended with Real Red for the bird's belly.  There is no solid Rich Razzleberry on the card.  Do you notice how the bird isn't solidly colored throughout?  Notice the natural lighting/shading.  I will explain how that look is achieved.

Here's how I colored this image:

1.  Color beak and legs with a Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Write marker.

2.  Outline bird image with a Real Red Stampin' Write marker.

3. Here's the most fun part of coloring the bird (sorry that this photo happened to be the one that came out fuzzy, but I think you can still see what I did).  With an Aqua painter, drag the color from one area to another, blending as you go.  The outline areas will be darker than the interior areas, providing a natural look with shading and it looks more like an object in natural light.  This dragging, or pulling, of color from the heaviest-colored areas to the uncolored areas of the image is how color is applied to those white areas.  No marker is used on the interior of the bird.  Isn't that cool?  Try it - it's fun!

4.  For the bird's belly, pick up color from the Rich Razzleberry Classic Stampin' Pad with an Aqua Painter.  If you haven't done this before, it's easy - just give the closed inkpad a few squeezes in the center of the case - just wrap your hands around it & squeeze.  Doing that will smear some of the ink onto the underside of the lid.  Open the inkpad & touch the Aqua Painter to those smears in order to pick up the color onto the brush.  Now paint away!

5.  After painting some Rich Razzleberry onto the belly, I dragged in and blended some of the Real Red from the bird onto the belly.  If you give this technique a try, you might find some interesting blended color combinations.

6. This is the finished colored bird image.

Here, again, is the finished card.

Linda