Art Impressions Style Water Color Picture

I have been obsessed lately with the Art Impressions style of water coloring!  I am trying to use what I already have in my stash of stamps and markers to learn this style.  I figure I’ll save money by not investing in new things plus it will help me expand my skills.  It’s been slow going and somewhat frustrating, though, because most of what I’ve been creating ends up looking messy with very little detail.

My Stamping Friend is a great teacher and I am very thankful for her!  She looked at the pieces I created and immediately knew what I was doing wrong.  Too much water.  The key secret to this technique is that the brush needs to be almost dry.  That’s what stops the ink from running together and creating a blobby mess in the center of the image.

My Most Awesome Stamping Friend made her own catalog of her Art Impressions stamps (and other stamps that will work for this technique) and included card examples that she found online.  She had been making those types of cards for several years but stopped for a while.  She almost purged all that stuff but decided to make the catalog instead.  I am soooo glad that she did that!    

We got together last Saturday and worked on a few water color pieces after watching an Art Impressions instructional video that she has.  The image in the attached picture is the best of the three images that I painted.  I may still put one of the others in a frame or on a card, but for now, they are in the stack with the other images that I have made as practice pieces.

The watering can in my image is not an Art Impressions stamp, but it works nicely.  The flowers, leaves, and grass are Art Impressions stamps and came from the basic floral and grass sets.  We used Marvy Le Plume markers and a water pen to paint the image. 

The other key secret to this technique is the water color paper – use a GOOD quality paper!  Some less quality papers either warp when the water hits it and/or it sucks up the ink & doesn’t allow it to move. We used Strathmore 140 lb cold pressed water color paper, on the less toothy side. The ink moved nicely and blended well.

I created a frame using dies & popping it up  over the image. I think glued on a black backing piece that is slightly larger than the frame to finish the front. I then cut an easel with a Sizzix die and glued it on the back. So now my picture stands up.

Try the Art Impressions style of water coloring ... you may find that you love it!