Purple Potted Pretties

The first time I coloured this sweet stamp, potted pretties I used pencils on kraft cardstock but I knew it had to also be watercoloured. I was very happy to be able to get such a range of depth on the petals with just one watercolour marker.

I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper and used four different markers from the Karin Brushmarker set of 26. For the petals I used one of the purples and had water and a brush handy to blend the ink. I put a few dots of ink from the purple marker at the narrow point of each petal then blended the ink to fill the petal. For a dark petal I laid down more ink initially, for the paler petals I sometimes used only the diluted ink left in the paintbrush.

You can probably see the leaves are a mix of a bright green and an olive green and I coloured the pot with blended grey ink. I added a sentiment in black from the PB ‘how sweet’ set and used a black gel pen to define the centres of the flowers.

Here are a few of the flowers I’ve been enjoying in my own garden. They get hit by rain then they bounce back up again. Mostly…

Potted Pretties in Pencil

Posted: May 24, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Coloured pencil, how sweet, Penny Black, potted pretties | Tags: Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil, Penny Black stamps | 5 Comments

This is the new ‘potted pretties’ stamp from Penny Black; it is pretty isn’t it? Although I love the soft blends of loose watercolour I also find pencil colouring very satisfying too, especially on kraft cardstock.

I use Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and chose a dark and a light pink along with white for the petals, two greens for the leaves and a tan with white for the pot. Once I had almost finished I added some more shadow to the centre of some flowers and the shadows of the leaves with a dark burgandy pencil – a trick I learned from Kathy Racoosin, colouring wizard.

If no-line watercolour is more your thing then I am colouring the same image in that style too. I’ll post it on the blog soon.

Don’t forget to check out my new online course if you haven’t already. The discount TEAMBLOG10 is still valid for a 10% discount at checkout. Thank you to those of you who have joined already. I am excited to hear from or see some prints once you’ve had a chance to dive in!

And another event you might be interested in if you are local is the Community Paper Crafting Garage Sale on June 10.