Watercolour Kingfisher – Photo tutorial and giveaway

Hi all! What are you all doing today? I’m going to try and start painting again after a break of 10 whole days!!! Mind you I have been painting, but on my cards, using stamps and not freeform. In fact, since I’ve become a Brand Ambassador for Spectrum noir (no I cannot say that too often 😊) I’ve been trying out their watercolour markers and colour pencils as I’ve used their alcohol markers often, but never tried anything else they do, and they do so much more, as you can see from my first order I received!I have to say that being a newbie artist, being accepted to represent a brand of art materials is just a dream come true, and such a validation of all the hundreds of hours I have put into learning the art of cardmaking and water colouring too. So in this photo heavy post, I’ll be sharing how I coloured the Kingfisher using only 3 of my Aqua water-based markers, red, blue and yellow, and in a very loose way.I started by stamping the Kingfisher stamp from Sheena Douglas using “Straw bale” from Spectrum Noir’s Harmony range of water reactive die inks on Spectrum Noir 300gm watercolour paper. I use this colour ink as it will mix well with the colours I will be using on my Kingfisher. Yellow, when mixed with blue, becomes green, and with red becomes orange, so since I don’t mind having those colours on most of my flower or bird paintings, this colour is perfect for me.I started by painting the head and wing of my Kingfisher using Azure Blue. These markers come with two nibs, a thin nib and a broader brushlike nib. I jused the broader nib in areas where the accents already were and blended and spread the paint with a water brush. I then added Flame Red and as you can see, it blended with the yellow ink and became orange. To make it redder, just add more red paint on top of it after it dries.You can see that I started going out of the stamp boundaries on the tail, which is necessary when you want to create a loose flow to your stamp paintings. I continued my colouring with its beak, by adding Azure Blue with the fine tip of the marker. This fine tip is perfect for nooks and crannies of small flowers too.While I was waiting for the base layers of my first wash to dry, I started on the branch of the tree. As I don’t have the brown Aqua marker, yet, I created the colour by mixing my red, blue and yellow, directly on my paper as I was too lazy to mix it on my acrylic block! But after blending with my water brush, you can no longer see the individual colours.Once the first wash had dried, I added more paint using large brush strokes with the broad tip of the markers, outside of the stamp outline and blended them in with the water brush. To create more flow in the paints, make sure your waterbrush is wet by squirting a puddle of water onto your acrylic block or crafting mat and dipping your brush into it before you start the blending. To create fine details on the bird to give more accent to its feathers, I used the fine tip of the Aqua markers, let it sit for afew seconds, before blending it with my brush. This will allow for the strokes to be visible but still blended in. I drew in the eye with my black Artliner from Spectrum Noir and finished the painting with some paint splatters.To do that, I just scribbled my marker onto my acrylic block, using the broad tip, and added a little water to it, picked up the paint with my waterbrush and tapped it against a stick or pen to allow the splatters to fall where I want it on my card. To finish, I added some highlights around the head and feathers of my bird with a white gel pen. And that’s how you do a loose painting of this Kingfisher stamp using only three Aqua pens from Spectrum Noir!I hand wrote a sentiment from Rumi, a famous 13th-century Persian poet, who’s inspirational poetry I love.

Well if you’re still with me, thank you for following my post till the end and I would love to hear your thoughts on my tutorial. To celebrate my being Brand Ambassador to Spectrum Noir, I am giving away this Kingfisher stamp as I ordered two by mistake, and a small watercolour pad with embossed images which you can practise your water colouring on. Just make sure you’re a follower and leave me a comment to let me know. I will pick a winner on the 31st of May.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day doing what you love!

Hugs,

I’m sharing this with:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies challenge – Anything goes

Color Crazy challenge – Anything goes which is hand coloured

Simon says Stamp Wednesday challenge – For a special lady

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday April – Pet project