Hello watercolor fans and thanks for stopping by! Today I am creating a Coral Reef using my flowers and foliage stamps, after all what is a Coral Reef but an underwater garden! I am always trying to find new ways to use my stamps to get the most bang for my buck. Grab a cuppa tea and hang while I tell you how I made this project.
I started out with the wet in wet technique to create the water on the right side of the painting. I left the area on the bottom left white for the coral. Once it was dry, I added the boat (it went awry, next time I’ll make it a lot lighter). I added some darker color to the lower right and let it move and spread in the water, then let it dry naturally. Make sure to keep it light, layers!
While that dried I added some of the coral that didn’t touch the water areas. This was the best part! I took some of my flowers and foliage that reminded me of plants from the sea and stamped them in bright colors. Use your imagination, what can you transform today?
The yellow coral is actually the small cactus from the Desert Succulent set (I used a lot of stamps from this set) inked with 985. I stamped it in the side left and bottom right. I masked any of the coral I wanted to be in the front before I stamped additional images.
Next up, from the succulents set, told you, I made what I am calling an anemone. I inked just the top of the stamp with red (not sure what it is called) and stamped it several times, bringing the color down a little towards the middle to give it depth.I added some 969 in the middle.
For the middle of the two, I inked the top of the tree up (it looked like coral to me) and pulled the color out of the lines by running my brush along one side and rounding the ends with water. I added some pink to it and then added white highlights once it was dry. I used the leaves from that set inked in orange and stamped randomly around the bottom. I pulled the color out – be random and crazy like coral!
I took the small blower bunch from from the mini flower set and inked the top and some of the stems in 725. I stamped it several times around. For the purple coral, I used the large cactus from the Desert set inked with 606. I pulled the color out of the lines and used a white gel pen to make dots. Lastly, the succulents plant inked with 346 added a nice accent. I used the small flowers from the Flower Set 5 inked with orange to make the fish. I added a little white to their bodies. For a little accent I stamped some of the hanging leaves.
For the sea, I added some 912 and 873, my favorite sand colors, along with some green blue- I stamped the small scribble flowers into the blue and pull the color down to create another reef. With some white highlights and darker areas underneath, I am trying to pull it into the background.
I added some additional flowers and created the sky with the wet-in-wet technique. I added some darker color to the shadows and some white where I missed some highlights.
This project took a little more time, but it was fun trying to find more water flowers to use! I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty day!
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