Faux Watercolor Artist

Is there such thing as faux watercolor? I’d say yes, because I do it all the time. I’m the biggest faux watercolor artist there ever was.

When it comes to watercolor art I really don’t have a clue what I’m doing. I have some basic skills but that is it. I just make it up as I go along. Composition and technique that is all foreign to me.

I attempted watercolor classes but that went wrong. Horribly wrong. But I am willing to try again, hopefully soon.

Anyway, the process, or my process, totally works for me. I just dabble some color here and there and then I let it dry. Once it’s dry, if I want a darker effect, I just dabble a bit more, right on top.

For this faux watercolor creation, I blended my love for watercolors with my love for stamping. Check out how I created this faux watercolor flower.

Supplies

Step One

First, the Stamp Perfect is a wonderful invention. I bought this at Michael’s a few months back. I’ve been eyeballing it for several months but I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it. That was until I received the rare 60% off coupon. Now I have two different ways to apply stamps, my acrylic block and the Stamp Perfect. OK, there are other brands out there like the Misti or the one by Ranger, I was all for either of those brands but for me the price tag has much to do with it. This Stamp Perfect really lives up to its name. When I use an acrylic block, at times, not all of the ink transfers to the paper. Lining the block back up to transfer the rest of the ink is a pain – and sometimes (most of the time) it doesn’t line up perfectly. Who’s with me? This is not the case with the Stamp Perfect. Once the stamp is stuck on the lid, I ink it up, and transfer the image to my paper. If all of the ink doesn’t transfer, I just place the lid down again to transfer the remaining ink (it lines up perfectly.

So, the Dahlia Stamp I’m using is from a blog hop I participated in with The Ton Stamps (read that post here). I seriously love their stamps and matching dies.

Well, after placing the stamp to the Stamp Perfect, I applied some pink ink (also from The Ton Stamps) onto the stamp and pressed the image onto my watercolor paper. I chose pink ink because I thought it would blend the best since I was making a pink flower. Just an FYI, not all stamp inks are created equal. Different types produce different results. For more details on that and other stamping tips and tricks, visit my stamping class on Skillshare. Sign up now and get two months free.

Step Two

Now that the image is on the paper, it’s time to start painting. What I like to do is add a bit of water to random petals with my brush and then sprinkle some watercolor powder (the water activates the powder). This watercolor powder goes a long way so not much is needed. Another method is to place some powder onto a palette or a zip lock bag, add some water and then mix it together (dip the brush and apply to paper). The look of this flower was achieved by lightly dabbing the brush to random petals (using more or less pigment to the surrounding petals). I continued this process until there was a light shade of pink on the flower. Once dried (that’s the key), I continued the process again. To see swatches of the watercolor powders, click here.