Introducing Spring Botanicals Crocus

Morning all and welcome to the first of my introductory posts for the Spring release at Uniko. Previously Bev has launched Snowdrops, Tulips and Daffodils as part of the Spring Botanicals series and this year Crocus has been added to the stable! When I got my hands on the new set I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. 

We had a few days of warm weather last weekend and it brought out the flowers from crocus bulbs I planted in the grass to naturalize and was inspired to replicate the look of the purple against the green of the grass.

I've previously done water colour versions of the tulip and snowdrop sets so why not a crocus one!

After stamping the image with Altenew's Limestone ink on watercolour paper, I used some rubber masking fluid to mask out the image then taped it firmly onto a board with masking tape when dry. Lots of water and paint was then flooded onto the panel, Cadmium Yellow and Prussian Blue being the main colours and let the magic begin. I tried to keep the darker colour on the right hand side of the image, lighter to the top and left, but I wasn't top hung up as watercolour often has a mind of its own! Before the paint was dry, I added some crumpled up clingfilm and left it to dry, then removed the film to create an interesting background. I just love the freedom this technique gives you compared to using say a stenciled background, the clingfilm gives you all the random texture without all the stress, it's different every time you do it too.

Don't rush to remove the masking fluid as any wet paint will smudge onto your clean image, so check first! Once the masking was removed, I washed a mix of Prussian Blue and Purple Lake onto the petals and a mix of Cadmium Yellow and Prussian Blue for the leaves and stem. The papery bit at the bottom of the stem I coloured using some very dilute Raw Sienna, the stigma is Cadmium Yellow and a touch of Vermillion and left to dry.

After removing the masking tape, I attached the finished panel to a 5 x 7 base card and stamped the sentiment from the set in black.

So what do you think? Why not check the rest of the team to see what ideas they've come up with?

Anita

Bev

Julie - that's me

Steph

See you tomorrow for another introducing post. 

Joining in over at:-

Stencilled background or freestyle?

I just love the freedom this cling film and watercolour technique gives you compared to using a stenciled background, it gives you all the random texture without all the stress, it's different every time you do it too.