Wednesday Trends - watercolouring tutorial

Hello crafty peeps! This is Iwona bringing you my first Wednesday Trends post :)

Did you notice that watercolouring becomes HOT?? I thought that I'll show you how I colour my images, using my good ole' watercolour pencils and some chalks. It's easier than you might think!

(Due to the large number of photos I reduced their size, but feel free to click on any of them, to see the enlarged version)

I stamped an image from the Puppy Love set on a piece of paper (the smoother the better!), with a permanent ink. I use and recommend Versafine.

I picked three shades of brown, to colour the dog's body:

Coloured it in with the lightest shade first:

than shaded it with darker browns, covering wider parts with the middle brown, and accenting only with the darkest shade. I placed the pencils so that they'd represent where the light comes from.

I coloured the rest in the same manner, but using only the lightest brown for the spots, and only the darkest one for the nose & collar. I used different pressure & density of colour, to make the shades.

Then I picked three shades of red, for the hearts:

coloured them in with the lightest colour:

and shaded with the remaining two:

After I was satisfied with the depth of colour, I picked my waterbrush, and blended the colours.

Important tip for blending - always start from the lightest part, and work your way to the darkest corner in small and swift circular moves. This way your colours will be evenly distributed. Starting from the darks will make you "drag" the colour into the lighter area, while too straight strokes will push your darkest colour back or even remove it completely.
You'll need some practice, but you'll be able to "catch" it very quickly.

Now I pulled out my chalks (Pebbles)

I made a faint line with the green chalk, where I wanted the ground to end:

then picked up some more colour and applied it below - again, I worked in circular moves, and used more pressure where I wanted the colour to be more saturated:

I used a darker shade of green for the shading, and picked up some light blue for the sky:

lastly I added shading around the image, with the darker blue:

A couple of tips for chalking:
- use your finger to smooth out the colours if desired,
- if you happen to run your chalk over the image, simply take a baby wipe or even wet your finger, and tap it lightly over the chalked area. This will remove all the excess.

Here's the finished card!

I hope you enjoyed :)