Altenew Academy Watercolor 101

Hello, hello and welcome!  I was so pleased to learn that I passed the Altenew Academy Level 2 Final and can now begin working on Level 3 courses!  For my first level 3 class I chose to take Artist's Watercolor 101 taught by Emily Midgett.  It may be my favorite class to date!  Emily's explanations and demonstrations are excellent and so easy to follow.  I had so much fun during this class that I included two cards in this blog post encompassing three of Emily's lessons.

I watercolored the lotus using techniques in we learned in Lesson 2:  Basic Watercoloring and the background is from Lesson 3:  Ombre Backgrounds. I chose to use the lotus stamp because the "sketched lines" help indicate where the shadow should go.  

My Process:

I wanted to use fall colors so I started by heat embossing the bloom with chocolate brown embossing powder. Emily taught us to slightly elevate the panel and then slowly build layers of color starting at the inked lines and then pulling the color out with a damp brush.  The watercolors were fairly diluted.  I started with yellow, then moved to orange, then scarlet and then a more concentrated scarlet in the deepest shadows.  The first layers should have with widest application of color and each new layer should stay closer to the inked lines.

Keys to Remember:  

1. In the past, I think I've had too much water on my brush. Emily showed us that if you dab your brush on a stamp shammy you will have the correct amount of water.  This really helped me.
2. Use fairly diluted watercolors.
3. Keep the tip of the brush pointing away from you. Rotate the paper and use the slant of the board to move the paint.
4. Remember to let each layer dry before beginning on the next layer.

I wanted a coordinating background so I used the same colors that I used to paint the lotus.  I taped the watercolor panel to a board to reduce warping, elevated the board and then started painting at the top with a #12 brush.  We learned to put darker color at the top and then pull the color down with a damp brush. Keep adding color and then maneuvering the color around with a damp brush.  Flip the board, skip an area and then add the third color then pull the color toward with scarlet.  Pull color down and push the middle color up.  Continue adding layers of color and keep blending.  I die cut the lotus, heat embossed a sentiment on cocoa card stock, assembled with foam tape and added some buttercream jewels.  I like how bright, intense and cohesive the color palette is.  I am very pleased with this card.

I find no-line watercoloring very intimidating so I was eager to start lesson #5.  I feel like it is an advanced technique but Emily broke the steps down in such a way that I was comfortable painting.  I thought it would be fun to compare and contrast the same lotus flower painted with the two different techniques.

            

Emily recommends no line stamping with Ink on 3 Fadeout.  This was my first time using this ink and it worked well.  The key to no line watercoloring is to maintain contrast between the light and dark areas.

I started with fairly diluted paint, put my first color down and then pulled it out with a damp brush.  Skip to an area that does not touch and then repeat the process until the first layer is down.  After the first layer is dry, start with the second color but don't cover all of the first layer. Dry and add color 3 to the nooks and crannies.  Do not add the third color to each petal as this keeps interesting contrast.  Add the 4th color to the darkest shadow areas.  

For the background, I randomly stamped "mini branches" on about half the background with pink. Next, starting at the top, I ink blended a gradient toward the bottom. The bottom third of the card does not have any color.

I assembled the card and added a navy die-cut sentiment and some water drop embellishments.  

Here are both cards side by side. Which do you like best?

Altenew Featured Products: Here

Inked Lotus stamp and die bundle

Mini Branch stamp

Altenew Envelopes

I also wanted to play along with:

The Rainbow Card Challenge #21 Autumnal Amber.  I am submitting my first card that was done in shades of autumnal amber.  

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Karen