Watercolor workshop with Colleen Balija

 Hi friends!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend!  Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in another virtual workshop with Altenew Educator, Colleen Balija (@irishrosecreations).  This time, we focused on watercoloring, and I had an amazing time, as always. 

Colleen provided us with some pre-work, prepping our card panel, and selecting a color palette.  I found an open source photo of a tropical sunrise or sunset, not sure which, and took my inspiration from it.  My color combination turned out much more bold than I had originally envisioned, but it is so striking! 

During the workshop, we started with some basic techniques- focusing on wet on dry application, and wet on wet application.  Once we were comfortable with that, we moved on to painting our card panels.  

I chose to work with the Fairy Tale Florals stamp set again, because the flowers are quite large, which is great for watercoloring.  I had embossed my image prior to the class, as the raised edges make it much easier to stay inside the lines. 

To start, I laid down a wash of water,, followed by Mountain Mist on all the petals, one at a time.  Once the petals were dry, I went back with Lagoon to add detail to the petals, followed by blending with water.   This is when I discovered that I didn't choose a stamp set that provide some artist drawn lines for shading.  And, since I am hopeless with drawing (or painting) those details in, I decided that I would just work with the loose watercoloring.  When the petals were dry once again, I followed up with some Persian Blue, using the same process.  I love how the colors blended together!   For the leaves, I used the same techniques - starting with wet on wet to add a wash of Limeaid, and then wet on dry to add Emerald. 

I had originally envisioned a soft, muted background, but as you can see that is not what I ended up with.  I used Autumn Blaze to add a wash to the background, and then came back and added more color around the image to provide some shadowing.   Once the background was completely dry, I added some splatters of Jet Black. 

I adhered my panel to a black card base.  I took a small piece of black card stock, backed with an adhesive sheet, and die-cut my sentiment,  and then placed it on my card front.  I finished up by adding some Obsidian Rhinestones.  

I am so glad that I was able to participate in this fantastic workshop!  Thank you, Colleen!  

Products Used:

• Recollections 110 Card Stock:  Black
• Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper 300gsm/140#
• Altenew Fairy Tale Florals Stamp Set
• Altenew Signature Words Dies
• Altenew Watercolor Brush Markers:  Mountain Mist, Lagoon, Persian Blue, Limeaid, Emerald, Autumn Blaze, Jet Black
• Honey Bee Stamps Obsidian Rhinestones

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!  Happy crafting!