Create A Background For A Simple Watercolor Coloring Book Image

Hello, Altenew friends. Norine here with you today! I have a card idea for you, to turn a simple floral image from the Watercolor Coloring Book into something more like a scene. Not that the beautiful images in that book need any modification, but with the simple technique I’m going to show you, you can add extra interest and make your beautiful floral images really pop!

Let’s get started!

I began by selecting one of the “stamped” outline images in the Watercolor Coloring Book and coloring with the Woodless Watercolor Pencils. I tried to use at least 2 or 3 different shades in each outlined area, which you can readily see in the leaves.

The flower petals also have a multi-shade colored and painted look – but more than that! Once the watercolor pencil pigment was reactivated with a wet paintbrush, blended, and dried, I came back with additional shades of paint from the Artists' Watercolor 24 Pan Set. You’ll notice this in particular with the addition of the purple hues on top of the flower on the lefthand side.

This is where the fun begins!

I found a scrap piece of paper on my desk – a cut-off from some previous project – and trimmed it a little more to be the perfect size to add a plank fence behind my flowers.

I used a pencil to draw lines on either side of the strip of paper, eyeballing for the approximate middle of the image, and taking the lines to the edge on either side.

Then, using the 0.1 fine-liner pen, I free-hand drew over the pencil lines to produce an imperfect and wobbly line to simulate fence lines. I could have added thin gaps between each plank, but I worried that any additional detail would be distracting and draw the focus away from the flowers rather than adding some simple interest to the background. Often, I like to paint muted shades of background color behind my florals, but this time I took it a step further, adding the pen details.

Finally, I erased the pencil lines, mixed up the leftover colors of paint on the lid of my palette box, added some black to turn it grey, and painted the fence planks. As you can see, I didn’t take particular care around the edges of the flowers, adding to the “artistic” look of the piece. Once dry, I added black paint speckles and white gouache speckles, trimmed up the card panel, and adhered it to a card base. I stamped and heat embossed a greeting from the Framed Foliage Stamp Set and heat set with clear embossing powder.

Thanks so much for joining us today and I hope you’ve been inspired to do something creative!  Have a wonderful day!

SUPPLIES USED:

Watercolor Coloring Book [ ALTN ] Stress-Free Coloring Book and… [ ALTN ] Florals Coloring Book and Watercolor… [ ALTN ] Artists' Watercolor Brushes – Detailed [ ALTN ] Artists' Watercolor Brushes – Round [ ALTN ] Woodless Watercolor Pencil 24 Set [ ALTN ] Artists' Watercolor 24 Pan Set [ ALTN ] Fragile Foliage Stamp Set [ ALTN ] Fragile Foliage Stamp & Die Bundle [ ALTN ] Obsidian Pigment Ink [ ALTN ] Crystal Clear Crisp Embossing Powder [ ALTN ] Fine Liner Pen Set [ ALTN ] My Sweet Petunia MISTI – Original [ ALTN ]