Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Watercoloring with markers 2

I spread the last layer of green with a slightly damp brush.


I wanted to deepen the shading on Callie, so I added a second, darker shade of beige.


I spread it with the damp brush.


Next I added a slightly darker shade of brown. Notice that for the darker shades, I put down less of the ink color.


After I blended that third shade on Callie, I used a very dark brown, but only a tiny bit here and there, where the shadows would be darkest, and spread it with a damp brush.


I put some pink on her cheeks.


I added a bit of pink to her ears too, and again, spread the color carefully with a damp only brush.


I colored in the tree ornaments, using the same technique, leaving a white area and pulling the water into the color and going right to the edges. I also took a periwinkle colored marker and drew some shadows on the candy canes in the white area and the red area, and used my smallest brush (damp) to blend it.


I colored over the entire area with a light blue marker for the background. I also brushed on a tiny bit of extra color in the center of the cherry pink elongated ornament. I dampened my smallest brush, and then dabbed it right on the end of the marker to pick up a bit of color, then applied it in strokes to the center of the ornament.


I spread the blue background ink with my largest brush and used a lot of water to do so. You have to be fast, or you get pooling and backwashing of the color. If you look closely, you can see some hard edges where I did get some backwashes, but I decided they actually gave the picture some character, so I left them!
I also added highlights with a white gel pen, and gave Callie two white hind feet by making fur strokes with the gel pen. I added highlights to the tree branch, the ornaments, the candy canes, and the kitty.
The image is now ready to use in a project!

13 comments:

  1. Holy Moly - you make it look effortless!! I love the vibrancy of the colors you get - I'm very motivated to get some waterbased markers and try this!! This is gorgeous, thanks so much for sharing!!
    hugs, Jami

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  2. Thank you so much Crissy. Your tutorials are invaluable to me, (and many others should think).
    You are a STAR!!
    Viv xx

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  3. I am so in awe of this - and your talents, Crissy! Thanks so much for sharing! You make it look so effortless. I just ordered some HH stamps today so will try this when they come!

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  4. What an awesome tutorial! I love watercoloring, but never considered trying my water-based markers like this (i'm relatively new to stamping)...gonna have to try it! :)

    You do some absolutely amazing work...very inspiring!

    Oh, and thank you so much for your kind words about my cards/blog! You really made my day! :)

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  5. thankyou so much for this excellent tut on colouring with this medium. It was really helpful :o)
    -x-

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  6. As always your work is amazing! I can't watercolor to save my life. Yours is always so perfect and I'm SO jealous! :-)

    Jane

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  7. Do you know how amazing this is? Holy cow! I love watching that step by step....your coloring is simply to die for!

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  8. I missed this!!! What a wonderful tutorial Crissy!You made that kitty come to life.

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  9. I have always loved your coloring! I will have to get my hands on some good watercolor paper and try this.

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  10. Hi from Australia! Wow - thanks SO much for the Tutorial - really, really good and you explained everything so well so it is easy to follow.

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  11. wow wow and wow again i am so impressed with this hugs pops x

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  12. Thank you Crissy.
    Now I know where I keep going wrong a lot of the time when building up colour layers ... using too much water and getting the 'backwash' effect. Will aim for 'damp' next time.

    Luv'n'Stuff
    Max
    xx

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