Ecoline Liquids and Indigo Art Book

Ecoline Liquid Watercolors are proving to be one of my favorite art supplies when it comes to flower making. Or anything I want bright, beautiful color for! About a month ago I posted this photo on Instagram and it has proven to be one of my most liked pieces of art. I'd like to show you how it all came together. 

I began with a new journal I'm trying out. The book itself is called Indigo Art Papers, here is a link to the one I have. A little spendy but I think worth the price. One nice thing that I will probably never use - look at this photo. About 1/2" to the right of the coils - see where the paper looks a little different? These hand made pages are made so you can tear the page out if you wish and have that cool hand torn look on all four sides. For supplies I grabbed a mop brush and some bright Ecoline colors. And my water jar. 

Using the mop brush I literally slopped water all over the page. And then took a dropper of ultramarine violet and squeezed it into the water. Just look at that bloom! And I knew I needed a photo so . . . click! 

You know how I am with color. So I just kept adding more. The sky blue bloomed really well also. The lemon yellow and light rose not so much. And that's okay. A lot of this first layer of color gets covered up later on. But I like how it started. 

I added in more sky blue, more of the ultramarine violet and more of the light rose. Just dropping color where I felt it needed some. And I let the colors run into each other and mix it up. It is all good. Wet into wet technique with these Ecolines. And the paper loved the colors! Notice I am working with a sheet of card stock under this page to protect the rest of the pages in the book.

And then I sprayed a layer of water right over the top of the entire page. Just a little boost to get the colors moving more. And I let it sit for a few. 

I placed a paper towel down over the page and gently blotted. I didn't want to remove much color, just some of the water. And look how pretty my paper towels are. When they look this good I save them to collage with. (Or just to oogle and ah over!)

I used my heat tool to finish drying the page. Isn't it pretty! I knew I wanted some flowers on this page so I looked for round areas that could be the center of several flowers and started inking them in. And I got excited and forgot to take photos. Eek! 

But I do have this photo. I used the centers I inked out and added petals of various types. That large yellow one in the lower right is actually a tangle pattern I designed called Floral 2. I used Schmincke watercolors to paint the flowers. I like how the Schminckes blended with the Ecoline underlayer and gave extra color and shading to some of the flowers. All that was left to do was go back over all the lines and add details with a black pen and a white Posca Paint Pen. I love working with the Ecoline - both the liquids that I used here and their brush pens. Such beautiful colors! And this Indigo Art Papers book - I am liking it more each time I use it. It is a little rough on the pens I use but I'm learning to work with it. 

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Ecoline Liquid Watercolors can be purchased here.

Indigo Art Papers books can be purchased here.