Hi Everyone! I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I had a chance to sit down and film my no-line painting process today as I’d had few requests to see what I do. I’m using the gorgeous Floribunda set from Power Poppy.
You can see the video of my process over on my YouTube or below.
For stamps I first use a pale ink to help with that no-line watercoloring technique. I often use Distress Ink in Antique Linen. It isn’t waterproof and the lines disappear completely as you watercolor over them. This means for adding shading and detail you have to repaint in the lines again and the result is typically less detailed. I recently tried Gina K’s amalgam inks for no-line watercolor and really like them. The lines stay and suck up some of the paint color so that detail is retained. Where they still show, they. are pale – although it’s still helpful to choose a co-ordinating color. I used Skeleton Leaves which is close to Antique Linen. There are several other choices including Barely There, Warm Glow and Whisper which I’ve also linked to.
For no-line watercolor when stamping, I prefer to use a hot press watercolor cardstock. I like Arches or Fabriano Artistico Extra White hot press. Hot press is smoother than cold press, so images stamp better. When I do no-line with digital stamps, I prefer to use cold press, just because of the way it looks.
I use a MISTI when stamping – usually I will only do one stamping of the image, but it can be tough to see with pale ink so a double stamp might be needed.
For my paints, the sky is the limit, My go-to watercolor paints right now are pan as I can paint in front of the TV, and I really like Altenew’s 24 Artist Watercolors (or their 36 pan set). For detailed images like this I also like to use a smaller brush. I use a size 4 or a 2 typically (Grumbacher and Silver Brush).
It’s easier to watch the process video than for me to explain my technique here. However I will say I’m a huge fan of mixed media to brighten up my no-line watercolor. I. like to bring in other media like Copic markers or pencil to add detail and contrast. For this one I used the Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner pens. (At the time of this post there is an awesome deal on these on Amazon!) These are water soluable for a brief time when applied to the cardstock and you can easily add detail and then blend them in with a damp brush, which is what I did here.
To finish my card, I stamped a sentiment from the set in WOW! Embossing ink and heat embossed in Weathered Gold from the new Seth Apter Metalz Trio. I then die cut the panel with a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle die and mounted it onto a white card base with craft foam to avoid any warping.
I hope this helped you see a little bit more of my watercolor process. If you’d like to see more videos like this let me know.
Jenny
Supplies
All of the supplies I used are listed below. If you purchase through my affiliate links (here or on YouTube) I receive a small amount of compensation which helps me run my blog and channel to bring you more crafty creations! Thank you for your support.
Great look at the coloring. The 88 pens look interesting will check to see if jetpens carry them or someplace else since I avoid amazon.
I sure enjoyed your watercoloring technique, you can never learn too much. Wonderful job on this card and congratulations on the youtube channel.
Gorgeous card Jenny, I loved your video and the tips in it.
Never thought of using markers for the final details. I have more then one kind of markers, I have to try them to find out if they are water soluble, even different kinds of gel pens which I know are water soluble and I will try that out..
Thank you so much for the inspiration, great video, stay safe and have a wonderful week.