AECP – Level 3 – Botanical Illustration Inspired Watercolor – Advanced Techniques

Hello.  It is wonderful to have you back to my blog.

My new set of classes were taught by Jaycee Gaspar entitled Botanical Illustration Inspired Watercolor – Advanced Techniques.  They were inspiring. As I am not an artist, I did not do these classes justice, but I thoroughly enjoyed them.

My inspiration was this picture of purple coneflowers.

I used the Altenew Build-A-Flower: Coneflower stamp set.  I started by stamping the floral images onto masking paper and then fussy cut them out.

Using Altenew Limestone Fresh Dye Ink, I stamped the first floral image onto smooth watercolor paper.

I placed the mask over the image and stamped the next flower.

Using the next mask, placing it over the stamped image and then stamped the third flower.

I did this twice, arranging the flowers in two different configurations, as I was not sure which I liked better.

I chose one of the arrangements and taped the watercolor paper to my board using painters tape to keep the paper from warping during painting.

Using a very diluted wash of purple and the wet-on-dry technique, I began painting the flower petals.

After the petals were dry I did the same to the leaves with a wash of diluted yellow-green.

I slowly added layers of detail to both the petals and the leaves with darker more saturated colors.

Using brown, orange and black I stippled the color onto the flower centers to try to recreate the prickly cone center of the flowers.

I enlarged the center of the flower on the bottom left and added a light wash of yellow to the background, fading from bottom to top.

Before removing the paper from the board, I added some splatter using black watercolor instead of gouache so contrast would not be so stark.

Using my A2 sized die I tested to see which orientation looked better.

After cutting the image using the die, I stamped a sentiment from the stamp set in black ink, using the Stampwheel 2.0 and my T-square to get it straight.

Then added it to a black A2 sized card base using dimensional foam tape to add a bit of lift since this is a one layer card.

I have learned so much in these watercolor classes.  Having a new appreciation for the medium, I plan to continue to take more watercolor classes.  Hope you liked today’s card.  See you soon.