Watercolour! - A Vintage Journey August 2017 Challenge

Hello Everyone and Welcome

Its great to see you all again. Today we launch our new Challenge over at A Vintage Journey and this time I will be your host for our 'Watercolour' challenge. Here are the details
' There is so much versatility in watercolour, making it possible to create art that can be gentle , washy and light or bold, full of colour and with definite lines and it comes in a variety of guises: pans, tubes, sticks, inks , markers, crayons. So for this challenge we would like your projects to include some form of watercolouring or watercolouring techniques and be in keeping with our favoured styles: vintage, shabby, mixed media. art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk .'

I guess my arty/ creative roots began with pencil drawing and painting, watercolours being my painting medium of choice and I have been wanting to revisit those roots for a long while now but have kept putting it off, shying away from it due to self doubt in my ability, I think, so I saw this challenge as a golden opportunity to rekindle my much neglected love of drawing and painting. I dug out my watercolour paints and brushes of yesteryear and combined them with some of my more modern day crafty mediums/ supplies to create a more contemporary watercolour painting with a mixed media twist.

Alot of watercolour artists often work from photos/ pictures to develop , hone and practise their skills especially if they aren't, for whatever reason, able to paint 'live' so given it had been so long since my last endeavours and not wanting to knock my confidence I decided to do just that so the image is sketched and painted from a picture I came across in one of my 'art inspiration' files.

I began by stretching my paper (300gsm) onto a drawing board. This gives you a tough, resilient surface on which to paint and helps the paper remain flat both during and after painting. I'm sure all you artists out there know how to do this but for for those of you who don't here's how:
1.First soak the paper in water. After 5/10 mins tip the paper to drain off as much water as possible 2.Lay the paper on a drawing board , making sure the paper doesn't buckle or fold.
3. Using Gummed paper tape (not masking tape) adhere the paper to the drawing board keeping it flat and smooth whilst adhering.
4. Leave to dry
Note: craft watercolour cardstock didn't take kindly to being stretched . It buckled at step 1! Worth bearing in mind when choosing your watercolour substrate .

I was then all prepped so gathered my pencil, watercolour paints, brushes and some artists masking fluid and set to work.

I sketched out the image in pencil and then painted the Artists blue mask in any areas I wanted to remain white once the painting was finished. The mask rubs away very easily by finger. Its the first time I have tried this product and have to say I was impressed. Tim Holtz distress glaze, I'm sure, would do a very similar job.
The deep red lips/ mouth show off the use of the masking fluid very well.

I used tones of blue throughout the painting with subtle hints of purple here and there. I have a deep love of eyes . They are without doubt the 'windows to the soul' and for me they speak volumes . Though I have pencil sketched eyes before I have never really tried painting eyes so this was my first attempt and I have to say I wasn't too disappointed with these baby blues....

Once I'd finished painting I added some texture around the focal image using Ranger Opaque texture paste through Tim Holtz dot fade stencil. I blended distress ink over the textured stenciling and around the edges of the paper

before adding a touch more detail using stamps with archival ink

I mounted the painting first onto card stock and then onto a 8x8 canvas which I'd delicately coloured around the edges with a watercolour paint wash.
Bead topped hex nuts helped finish off two of the corners

and I added a few 'words' all thanks to a Tim Holtz small talk sticker adhered to the reverse of a quote chip.

I am pleased I have tried my hand at watercolour painting again, whether I worked wonders with them, well, I'll let you be the judge of that but at least, after almost 25 years ( hangs head in shame) I have taken the first step and rekindled the fire.

I hope my mixed media watercolour painting along with all the fabulous projects created by some of my Fellow Creative Guides , which can be seen here at A Vintage Journey will inspire you to go create yourself and join us in our Watercolour Challenge .
As always at the end of the challenge there will be one lucky winner chosen by Random. Org who will receive our Sponsors Prize which this month is a £20 Gift card , generously donated by
Craft Obsessions

The Creative Guides also choose 3 Pinworthy Winners who will win a Pinworthy badge to display on their blog and an invite to join us as a Guest Designer for a future Challenge.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges : 
Stamps and Stencils: Technique School  
Technique- stretching the watercolour paper
Thats Crafty: Anything but Cards
The Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge:August , Anything Goes Stamping Challenge
background stamping detail 

I hope you have enjoyed your time here today - thank you so much for stopping by.
I really do appreciate all your visits, comments and follows.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend
Take care and keep on the happy side
Amanda
xxx