As some of you know, I’ve been in bed for most part of the week because of a faringitis. I felt a little better so I went to classes (didn’t go that well, I had a major cough attack in the middle of the class).

Anyway, I have a small illustration ATC to show you today :)  I made this mainly because I wanted to try my new Niji waterbrush! Seriously, it’s the first time I use one of that thingies. I thought it’d be hard to get used to, but I think I got the hang of it.

It’s a lonely corn poppy painted with Winsor & Newton watercolors and Karat-Aquarel watercolor pencils (Staedtler).

Now, why do I crave some poppy seed ice-cream, hmm?

Hi everyone! Today I’m sharing with you yet another handrawn ATC. This one is part of a personal trade with Michele and her daughter, Kate -8yo- (this one being the one for Kate).

Both asked for cats in their cards and I though it’d be cute to make a cartoon-ish scene for the girl’s card. So I sketched a kitty flying with a balloon (I remember there was a nursery rhyme I liked a lot about a red balloon :p) and a birdie flying next to him (maybe a parrot?). “Oh, hai” is clearly a reference to my favourite kitty site, I Can Has Cheezburger :D

so, when the sketch was done I scanned it and resized to ATC size. Random note, I hardly ever sketch small enough so I mostly use a 5″x7″ sketchbook and resize it later :p Ok, so then I traced the sketch to watercolor paper and inked with a COPIC multiliner in 0,1mm and 0,05mm sizes (seriously, I don’t know what I’ll do when they run dry).

For the background I first stamped some swirls (”Elegant Flourishes” from Autumn Leaves) with Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder, so the swirls act as a resist to the paint. When I was done painting the sky I removed the embossing powder by ironing over it (with a photocopy paper in between).

Then I painted Mr. Kitty and Mr. Birdie, and there isn’t a lot of science there. I never took any watercolor “classes” so my techniques are merely intuitive, lol.

Have a lovely sunday!

Estivalia.

PS: Btw, people, I’m still on the lookout for a cutting mat, if you can help :p (see previous post).

So, what I’ve been up to? Not much, since I woke up late for class on Thursday and I skipped class on Friday to go to court (we had an assignment to presence an audience and write a report about it, oh joy).

Card-making has been a little lazy these past couple weeks. As it seems a tradition for me, I did NOT made a card on World Card Making Day, lol.

But I have a nice and cute ATC to share with you :) This one is for the October edition of the “Monthly Partner Swap” at ATCsforAll. Since I was on a major hiatus on the site I decided it’d be wise to start on 1/1 trades and stuff first.

So, my assigned partner liked cute, pink and princesses. And I couldn’t think of anything cuter than a wa-lolita and cherry blossoms, so I drew a Cherry Blossom Princess (or Sakura-hime in my lame japanese). For the background, first I clear embossed a cherry blossom and painted over it with watercolor (so the embossed images “resist” the paint). Then I removed the embossing powder by ironing over the card (with a photocopy paper in between) and added some gold embossed smaller cherry blossoms (the brownish ones).

The girl is actually painted with watercolors and some parts of her dress are highlighted with a golden gel pen. The kimono pattern is actually origami paper that I paper pieced to the card, little tiny pieces of paper (yes, it was torture, but I think it was for the best).

Today I made a card for a 8 year old (daughter of a user of AFA I’m trading with), but I’ll share that tomorrow :)

On a totally unrelated note I wish to ask a favor to anyone that could help me. My cutting mat broke a few months ago and I am looking for a replacement for it. I’ve been considering the Basic Grey Precision Mat for a while but it’s a bit pricey (considering shipping alone would be $20 or something). I was wondering if any of you would be so kind to take the time to buy it with those 40% coupons some stores have and send it to me? (I’d send you the money via Paypal).

But at the same time I’m open for any suggestion (since I am almost “blind” at this stuff). I was also considering the Scor-Mat which is far cheaper (but you know, I don’t have a Scor-Pal :p).

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you tomorrow! :*

Estivalia.

Hi everyone! WOW, 2 days in a roll, I almost can’t believe it myself ;D I’m posting while watching the chile v/s Australia tenis match that’s playing on my city… Ironic, I know, the stadium is right next to my university, LOL.

Anyway, I digress. Today I’m showing you the second cat card, my personal favourite :)

It’s the same concept and almost the same supplies, but this one in different colors.

To make the background “splashes” of color I dilluted the watercolor into water and used a syringe (without needle) to splat the watercolor over the paper. Then I poured salt over it, for an added effect (and so it’d dry faster :). I used watercolor in tubes, since it was harder to get a lot of color from the cakes (at least to me). Then I used my fingers to make a circle where the cat would be, with watercolors and gold acrylic paint, stamped the flourishes and distressed the background

I was also very impressed with the performance of the ink I used, which made a better impression that the black Staz-On from yesterday. I used Dark Brown fluid chalk ink on the porous side of my transparency and let it dry for a while. Awesome stuff :)

Oh, yeah, here’s the detail shot:

Today I’m planning to make my first try at inchies, that’ll be fun :D

Estivalia

Materials: Cardboard, text page, inkjet transparency (HP), Baroque Motifs rubberstamp set (SU!), cat rubberstamp (unknown brand), watercolor in tubes (Pentel), syringer, salt, Palmer Prism Acrylic paint in Pure Gold (LOVE this gold tone), Chocolate & Blueberries Colorbox fluid chalk ink (Clearsnap).

Hi everyone! Long time, no art :P Today, I think, it’s the beggining of an ATC kick that hopefully will last some time. I can’t stay away from it too long, lol.

This ATC is part of a series of 2 that I made inspired by a swap over at ATCs for All that I couldn’t join because I was already late when I got back to the site (I try to mail my cards with at least 3 weeks on anticipation). The swap was about using transparencies on the cards… but, where, do you ask? HA, keep reading *wink*

So, I started with some cardboard (from a cereal box) and covered it with a text page from an old physics book in spanish that Claudio found on his place and gave me, to use for this kind of stuff. I painted the page with some watercolors (very dilluted on water and using a syringer for the “splash”).

Then I painted a circle with my fingers, added some gold acrylic paint here and there, stamped some flourished and added ink to the edges, for distressing.

So, that is the background. What is actually stamped on the transparency is… the cat, lol. I used black Staz-On on the porous side of a trasparency meant to use with a inkjet printer. Here’s a detail shot, so you can see it “clearly” (pun intended :D)

Not the best picture ever, but it’s a cloudy dat (dunno why, but it’s so hard to get decent shot on cloudy days). Anyway, the transparency is attached to the cardboard with an eyelet, so you can play with it, moving it aside… or not, I just thought it’d be fun.

So, that’s it for today. I’ll show you the second one tomorrow! Thanks you for reading :)

A dog, I have always said, is prose; a cat is a poem. ~Jean Burden

Estivalia.

Materials: Cardboard, text page, inkjet transparency (HP), Baroque Motifs rubberstamp set (SU!), cat rubberstamp (unknown brand), watercolor in tubes (Pentel), syringer, salt, Palmer Prism Acrylic paint in Pure Gold (LOVE this gold tone), Jet Black Staz-On ink(Tsukineko), Black colorbox pigment ink.

I think it’s the very first time that I use a whole sheet of patterned paper in the same day, no scraps at all ;)

I made this ATC for Laura, who wanted to swap Rolodex cards to keep contact info of her friends updated. I don’t have those Rolodex thingies, so I offered to make her an ATC.

It’s the first time I make a card like this, so I probably wrote more than I should, LOL. I included both my e-mail and snail mail address, my birthday and other stuff (later I added my website).

On the front (up) I used the last scrap of the Memory Box patterned paper that I used on yesterday’s card and wrote my name over it. I was trying to make those nifty scripty tattoo-like caligraphy but I really suck at it, LOL. I printed my adress in normal photocopy paper and glued it, then used acrylic paint to make it look like it is part of the paper. Final touch was a paper flower with a Stickles center :)

On the back I wrote other random info (birthday, website, likes, etc). The bird image is actually the original one I was gonna use yesterday, but then I realized the distressing didn’t go that well with the card, so I re-made it.

Papers: Grove paper pack (Memory Box), light brown textured cardstock.
Misc: White acrylic paint (Artel), paper flower, Stardust Stickles (Ranger), COPIC Multiliner and Sketch markers.

Hi everyone! :) Remember I posted a picture of my Prismacolor pencils not so long ago? Well, this is the finished version of the sketch you saw on my notebook then. Ironically, I didn’t use my new pencils.

The base is heavyweight watercolor paper in it’s pure state. I mean, I didn’t gesso the base which I liked, it wasn’t so hard to make the pencils strokes and blending was a little easier.

I did wanted to incorporate some stamping to the background, because it looked rather dull and empty, so I added some swirls from a SU! set.

The white highlights were the hardest thing, I’ve noticed my gel pen is not that handy for this kind of work so I might try the Ranger white pen that seems to be all the rage now in craft-world :) For this one, a little white acrylic paint and a veeeeery fin brush did the job.

Hopefully next time I will have an ATC made with prismacolor pencils! Thanks for looking and take care :)

Materials: Watercolors (W&N), Karat- Aquarel watercolor pencils (Staedtler), River Rock classic ink (Stampin’ Up!), Baroque Motifs set (Stampin’ Up!), ribbon, bird house charm, white acrylic paint (Artel), 300gs watercolor paper (Artel/Fabriano).

I made this card yesterday, a couple hours after the one I posted. It’s the same koi sketch but turned a little and colored differently. So, I you were thinking this looked familiar… well, now you know why, lol.

This one is specially dedicated to a friend who commented he preferred “normal” colored koi fishes :)

The background texture is a little different because on this one I applied the gesso with a dry brush rather than the spatula. It creates a more subtle effect, and it’s easier to paint over. Background colors are: black, blues, purple and a light brown. For the carp itself I used orange and red, and the shadows are made with a dark brown watercolor pencil. Minor details are made with a H graphite pen (eyes, mouth, etc) and with a white pen (highlights and scales on the body).

I am absolutely loving this one ♥ Next time I’ll try to incorporate some stamping! That should be fun. Thank you everyone for your sweet comments! :)

Materials: Watercolors (Winsor & Newton), watercolor pencils (Karat Aquarell, Staedtler), acrylic gesso (Artel),  big random brush (for applying gesso), watercolor brushes (Winsor & Newton and Artel), 0.5mm mechanical pencil (with H lead), white gel pen (Uni-ball UM-120AC)

So, this is my first attempt with gessoed paper. The texture on this one was made with a spatula. I like it, it kinda “feels” underwater.

Did you know there are different colors of koi? And all of them have a name. This here is a Tancho, I choosed it because it looks like Japan’s flag and I thought that was very interesting.

It is mostly watercolors, but the seaweeds and the shadows and lines of the koi are made with watercolor pencils. Oh, and I made small highlights with a white pen :P

Not so bad for a first attempt, don’t you think? :)

Materials: Watercolors (Winsor & Newton), watercolor pencils (Karat Aquarell, Staedtler), acrylic gesso (Artel), spatula, watercolor brushes, 0.5mm mechanical pencil (with H lead), white gel pen (Uni-ball UM-120AC)

Oh well… they do say that old habits die hard, or not? :P I can’t stay too long from doing something more “artistry”. Rubberstamping is an art itself, but I can’t help but going back to my “roots” -watercolors and drawing.

This is a WIP (Work in Progress) and I hope to have at least one of the ATCs ready for Monday. I wanted to make a Koi fish ATC and, while Google-browsing, I came across Shanti’s blog (her artwork is GORGEUS!) and she mentioned that she used Gesso to give texture to her paintings.

Hum… I want to do that too.

Off I went Google-browsing again :p After a while I found that there was a chilean art supply company that sold premade acrylic gesso (I was getting all confused trying to figure out a “recipe”) but I wasn’t really sure I’d found it in my city, so I was very happy when Claudio recogniced the container from a picture I showed him online. I bought the Gesso (around $7 for 500 c.c.) and a block of heavy watercolor paper (300 grs.).

Oh, I also got a case of 12 prismacolor pencils, but that’s another story, LOL (because it was through eBay… they stared really odd at me when I asked for those pencils locally :( )

Anyway, back to what I was talking about… I cut 3 ATCs from a sheet of watercolor paper and had some spare scrap. I gessoed it with a spatula for some texture, used a hair drier to hasten the process (what can I say? patience is not one of my virtues when it comes to art) and painted over it. I bet it is the worst koi drawing ever, but I loved how the background looks :) (you can see it a little better on the Flickr page… I’m so not going to scan a close up! *shame*).

At least I have an idea of how to blend watercolors over this new base. Stay tuned!

Materials: Acrylic Gesso (Artel), Fabriano Watercolor paper (300 grs.), spatula.