Anyone Can Color: A Watercoloring Tutorial

Last year, I created a few simple tutorials on coloring--one on coloring with prismacolor pencils and one with Copic markers. After my post the other day with the watercolored flowers, I received a lot of emails asking how I did it...so today I thought I would show you how EASY it is to paint with Stampin' Up! reinkers.

My goal this year is to create level II tutorials for all of the coloring mediums I have already done. I really love using lots of different coloring mediums and have found that most are a lot easier to use than they appear.

I am going to list all of my coloring tutorials on the sidebar of my blog shortly so they will be easier to find.

Watercoloring with SU Reinkers

What you need:
Paintbrush (or aquapainter, etc)
Bowl of water (you don't need this if you use aquapainter)
Ink to stamp image (I used Memento tuxedo black because I am lazy and can use this for almost anything I color with!)
Watercolor paper (essential)
Reinker(s) in what ever colors you want to paint with (Stamp pad is optional. You can simply use a plastic plate to hold the reinker color if you don't have the pad.)
Stamp image (I used a flower from A Year of Flowers from Gina K Designs)

I choose to use a thin paint brush when watercoloring because it gives me more control. I have used an aquapainter before and find that sometimes it drops more water than I want when I squeeze it. You may prefer to use an aquapainter and that is fine. It is just a matter of personal preference.


Step 1:
Stamp image on watercolor paper.
Step 2: Squeeze a drop of reinker on the inside of the stamp pad (or plastic plate).
If you are using more than one color on an image, prepare all inks for that image the same way.
For this image, I simply used Riding Hood Red (SU!). You can get several shades from each color so for some images you can use one reinker to color. That is one of the reasons I love watercoloring.

Step 3: Dip brush in water and mix with some of the ink to create lighter color. Now you are ready to paint.

Step 4: Dip brush in the darkest area of the ink and paint where you would see the darkest areas in the rose. (Tip: If you think of a real rose---darker areas would appear where the petals attach to the flower and right under each petal.)

Step 5: Then dip the brush in the lighter (diluted) area of ink and paint the other areas of the flower, keeping in mind where there would be natural light hitting the flower. The ink will blend into the darker area nicely because the water helps to move the ink. This is the great (and easy) part of watercoloring. It is very easy to achieve nice (realistic) results.

Because I knew I was cutting the flower out, I didn't have to worry about keeping the ink inside the lines on this. I was just concerned with making the color realistic.

Step 6: Go over any areas that need to be blended together. You can create even lighter areas by dipping the brush in the water (do not oversaturate) and going over the areas that you want to make lighter.

When the ink is dry you can cut out the flower and attach to the card.

For my flower card, I used:

Red Rose: Riding Hood Red

Blue Flower: Brilliant Blue, Bordering Blue

Sunflower: Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Barely Bananna, More Mustard

Stems and Leaves: Old Olive

Watercoloring is one of the easiest ways to get realistic and vibrant colors with very little effort. I think if you try this, you will be amazed at how easy it is to paint with reinkers.

Please let me know if try it---I would love to see your creations.

Stay tuned: My Favorite Things will be releasing four new stamp sets on Wednesday and I have some MFTeasers to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by!