Happy Father's Day!

A happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Ink on watercolor. With rocks.

Ink and watercolor flowers

Last week with Mother's day approaching, I decided to experiment with a new style for card, and it turned out to be one of my favorite pieces that's I've done a while.  It works well as a single flat card that doubles as a frameable illustration, and I'm going to tell you how I did it. A little inspiration from my Pinterest flower board, a print I have at home, and all the ink illustrations I've been doing lately, I set to work sketching out these blossoms.

Free style sketching

I wanted to keep the style feeling loose and organic, so I didn't strive for exact replicas but instead used the images as a guide for the movement of the lines. If you're recreating at home, just a reminder you can do some major damage with an eraser, so you want to sketch as lightly and as little as possible. I'm using some pretty heavy 120lb stock watercolor paper and a 2H pencil which helps a little.

Next I drew over the lines with India ink, adding some variation in thickness. I am in desperate need of a new bottle of ink if anyone is looking for a for-no-reason gift for me. It starts to gunk once it gets to a certain age and I can't seem to find a replacement anywhere. 

Now you can actually see it.

Unlike watercolors, India ink is permanent once it is dried so I was able to do the watercolor last.  You could of course add your color first and ink second if you prefer. It did start to smudge if I pressed too hard with the paintbrush. When I started I wasn't sure if and how much color I would use so that's why I added mine afterwards. To avoid looking hippie psychedelic, I stuck with a 4 color palette of sherbert-y colors. 

Yum

I was so pumped, I even did a second one. 

Definitely going to use this style more in the future.  They didn't even take that long, only a few hours!

O is for Owl

The last letter in the series of initials for my goddaughter is finally done! The "O" for her last name has a friendly little owl perched in the center. Heavy watercolors in pinks and purples are perfect for a little princess, and of course, match the other two.

Impromptu watercolors on a Tuesday night

With the craziness of the holidays, moving, and wedding invitations, I didn't get to do much freestyle creative.  On Sunday night, I promised myself to do something creative this week that was just for myself, and for no reason.  So here's a little watercolor design inspired by my coasters and a book on historical pattern design, just for fun.

Camera 1:

The apartment has great windowsills

Camera 2:

Yes, this could be a coaster