2020 Topic #19 A Beautiful Flower with HP {by Amanda Pink}

       2020 Topic 19: Words Of Wisdom

Amanda has chosen one of the most gorgeous flowers from our Hot Picks series to share some watercolour wisdom with you today! Infusions are a fun product, you can use them in different tonal values depending on how crazy you go with the amount of powder to water ratio. Amanda has a great bag of tricks to share!

~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Amanda (ink-a-pink) with you today, and I'd like to share with you the project I have created for the current topic 'Words of Wisdom'. 

I have created a piece of 'Art on the Round' for this topic where the focal imagery plays to my chosen 'Words of Wisdom'- a quote about seeing and accepting 'beauty in imperfection'. 

I've mixed up the creativity so there's some water colour painting with PaperArtsy infusions, some gelli printing with PaperArtsy Frescos and some stamping using a couple of PaperArtsy Hot Pick stampsets.   

Usually when I create I start with the backgrounds but on this occasion the creativity began with the flower. In fact, it was the flower that provided the inspiration and guided the way. 

 

The flower is from PaperArtsy Hot Picks 1009 (HP1009) 

I used a stamping platform to stamp it onto PaperArtsy Smoothy card. I find a platform to be a very useful tool as it enables me to stamp over the image with precision if I don't get a good stamped impression the first time. It also allows you to add colour, then stamp again in black over the top (as long as you manage to keep the item in position during that process!)

I have to show you a close up of the stamped flower as the crisp lines and fine detail is pretty impressive!   

I used to love watercolour painting back in my earlier creative days and have neglected it in recent years so I thought I would re- kindle that love and watercolour the flower using PaperArtsy Infusions as my watercolour medium. Lemoncello was the infusion my hand went to first and I was ok with that as I thought the lemon/yellow tones would be a lovely colour for the flower. 

For anyone who isn't familiar with PaperArtsy Infusions heres a little info about them. They are water soluble particles made up of a fine dye colour pigment and walnut crystal particles that react at different rates when mixed with water. The colour pigment will react first to give instant colour  and then the walnut crystals will dissolve gradually to give a brown base.  

You can control the colour to brown ratio by the amount of water you add and how quickly you blot and dry as you work.

They are a really versatile medium and are available in a range of colours. If you type Infusions into the search bar at the top of this blog you will find many posts showing various ways in which they can be used. 

 

'A little goes a long way' with infusions. The tiniest of sprinkles when spritzed with water was  more than enough for painting the flower. 

The ability of being able to control the colour to brown ratio of the infusions was great for watercolour painting as it allowed me to gradually build up the colour of the petals to create light and shadow and give them depth and dimension. 

I was really pleased with the results of infusion water-colouring and enjoyed being reminded of  the 'inner calm' this type of painting gives me. 

As the saying goes 'after the calm comes the storm'  and that's what happened next with some, lets say, messier, unpredictable gelli plate printing to create the backgrounds. 

I worked with the following colours of PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylic Paints:  Eggshell, Honeydew, Antartic, Blue Moon, Snowflake.

I created numerous prints but chose the two in the photo for the project. 

Give or take a pull here and there, they were all created by brayering a Fresco colour on the plate one at a time and pulling a print after each application. If I remember correctly the colour order went something like this: Eggshell, Honeydew, Blue Moon which proved to be camera shy so is missing from the line up in the photo above, Antartic, Snowflake. I also added some Lemoncello Infusions to the mix thinking it would add some unity between the backgrounds and the flower.  

  

The prints were cut to cover the two White /Greyboard Rounds from That's Crafty (6inch and 4inch)  

 

I like to add some stamping to my backgrounds for extra detail and interest .

I used the thin number stamp from PaperArtsy Hot Picks 1604 (HP1604) ,stamping with black Archival Ink.

 

 

... and the small texture stamp from PaperArtsy Eclectica Seth Apter Collection (ESA13) stamping with Lemoncello Infusions 

 

 Stamping with infusions gives a lovely tonal watery impression. 

 

Around the circumference of the larger 'round' I stamped the grasses in black archival. The stamp is  from the same stampset as the flower: PaperArtsy Hot Picks 1009 (HP1009) . 

You know I said how impressed I was with the fine lines and detail of the flower stamp well lets just say I was blown away with the crisp fine thin lines the grass stamp created! 

The circular backgrounds were adhered to the two rounds which were then adhered together  ready for the focal flower and the 'Words of Wisdom'.....

 .... 'Even When Petals have Flaws, All You See Is a Beautiful Flower!' 

These 'Words of Wisdom' haven't as yet been made into a PaperArtsy stamp (or at least I don't think they have ?) so they were created with the help of some PaperArtsy Smoothy (regular) card and a printer. 

 

To 'ground' the flower I created a vase for it to sit in using the base of the 'quirky girl' stamp from PaperArtsy Hot Picks 1604 (HP604) stamp set, mentioned and seen above. It's coloured with Lemoncello infusions and makes for a unique stylized flower holder to finish off the project.  

I have enjoyed creating for this topic as it allowed me to touch base again with my love of watercolour painting and enjoy some 'inner calm'. It also encouraged me to seek out some 'words of wisdom' that would work well with the imagery and try and enhance the wisdom they hold through creativity.  

I hope my 'Words of Wisdom' Art on the Round has offered some creative inspiration, maybe even a little 'pause for thought'?  

Thank you for joining me today/ tonight. 

Keep on Creating 

Take care 

Amanda 

x

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