Winter Song

It’s a winter watercolour week on the Penny Black blog and here is my contribution. This little scene works well as a watercolour with all that sky needing colour. I decided on a limited palette of blue, purple, black and grey with just a touch of mustard on the chickadee’s feet.

I started by stamping “Winter Song” on watercolour paper in versafine onyx black, a pigment ink which won’t bleed when I start adding water. Next I splattered some masking fluid on the paper and let it dry. Using an Indianthrene Blue #247 watercolour pencil colour I shaded all the sky area then blended the colour with a water brush. I tried to avoid colouring in the little white circles but some were too small. Next I started adding Delft Blue #141 by taking colour from the pencil tip with a waterbrush. Using the same colour and brush, I painted above the snow banks blending from dark to light up the panel. I also added both blues to the bottom of the panel with a brush. I painted the bird with colour from black #99, medium grey #97 and gold ochre #183 pencils. The trees on the left hand side looked too flat so I painted shading on one side of tree trunks with colour from medium grey # 97 pencil.

When all the watercolouring was dry I rubbed off the masking fluid and used a white gel pen to draw in any tiny branches or circles that were painted over. I matted with black, then periwinkle cardstock and attached it to a white card base to create a 5″x 5.5″ card. You can’t see in the photo but I did add a little shimmer to the snowflakes with a clear wink of stella pen.

Supplies:

Stamps: Winter Song  (PB)
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils Indianthrene Blue #247, Delft Blue #141, Black #99, Medium grey #97 , Gold ochre #183 (Faber Castell)
Cardstock: Penny Black Periwinkle mix & match paper, Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Natural White 110lb cardstock, Black 
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid, Signo white gel pen, clear Wink of Stella pen