Watercoloring With Glaze Pens - Tutorial Thursday 07/10/08

Look at this! Today's tutorial is from ME!! Woo hoo!!

Here's a card I made for the Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps June Newsletter, and I provided a tutorial on watercoloring with Sakura Glaze Pens. Now, I hadn't tried this before and was prepared that it would fail utterly, but it turned out fairly well I think. I originally heard this from a posted class schedule at a stamp store somewhere {I think?}, but then it turned out that the technique was mis-named and it wasn't something that was being offered. I was intrigued by it and with the PPRS Newsletter tutorial looming I thought I'd try something with this gorgeous flowers Nicole came out with last month from the Prickley Pear Sketched Flowers sheet.

The general card details before I start. This layout is from Sketch Challenge 172 (SC172) on Splitcoast. I was very inspired by the sketch origination card by dlounds found here (the ribbon was a great touch!). The colors on my card are black, white, olive and a blue that came in a GP 110# cardstock multi-pack I got a long time ago at Big Lots. I made the "patterned paper" on the right side using the words stamp from the sheet. I used a canvas needlework template to make the even black dots on the various layers. It was fun to try watercoloring with the Glaze Pens. Most of what I see using them is the full strength, full color/coverage shiny finish, which looks GREAT. But this looks good too, a much softer look. But because you used Glaze ink, it will still dry to that shiny finish, even if it's not dark, continuous color -- which is the cool part I think.

On to the tutorial...

Watercoloring with Sakura Glaze Pens

1. Stamp the word stamp from the Sketched Flowers sheet onto the large white panel repeatedly, working from top to bottom, to create the background piece. Rub an old toothbrush (not your darling husband’s!) over blue ink pad and “spit” the ink onto the paper. You could also stipple or use a splatter pattern stamp if you don’t want to use the toothbrush method. While we’re stamping, let’s stamp the flower on the small white panel with Palette Noir or other waterproof black ink.
2. We are going to watercolor the flower using Glaze pens. You need to work quickly, but don't panic. The last thing you want to do is get your paper too wet, it will curl and pill and be yucky.
3. Make sure your Aquapainter is only *just* damp, not dripping wet. Dampen one of the flower petals a little bit, and then color it in with the glaze pen -- nice and heavy. You need to work quickly or the glaze ink will begin to dry {part of the reason you want to put the ink on heavy}. So, color the petal – it doesn’t have to be perfect as long as it stays wet. Then, take the Aquapainter again and brush over the same petal, evening out and lightening the ink to give a softer look {watercolor look}. Repeat this step with all the petals and the leaves as well. Set aside to dry.
4. Once the image is dry, I went back and added darker spots and highlights with the same color Glaze pen. This gives a little more flexibility of color depth and variation but still gives the cool Glaze finish when dry – even on the watercolored areas. I also highlighted the stem with the olive Glaze pen at full strength after the image was dry.
5. Once you’re done with that, you can highlight the entire outline of the image with a light colored Prismacolor marker if you want. The alcohol-based markers don’t interfere with the ink of the pens so your image won’t bleed during this step.

Cardstock dimensions for all pieces of this card are as follows. Cut blue cardstock to 8.5” by 5.5”, 1.25” by 5.5”, and 3.375” by 2.375”. Cut white cardstock to 3.5” by 4.125” and 3.125” by 2.125”. Cut black cardstock to 1.375” by 5.5” and 3.5” by 2.5”. Cut olive patterned paper to 4.125” by 1.875”.

Complete supply list: Sakura Glaze Gel Pens in blue, yellow, olive and black. Palette Noir Ink. Olive colored patterned paper. Stamps from the Sketched Flowers sheet from Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. Canvas needlework piercing template. Dimensionals. Aquapainter. Black brads. Ribbon. Prismacolor marker for highlight. Blue, white and black cardstock.