Doodled flowers

Today I have a short post to share a card that I made without any stamps, dies, or even stencils. Crazy, right? Instead, I created a couple of doodle-y flowers with a pen and paints.

When I started this little project I wasn’t thinking about making a card; I just wanted to try drawing something and painting it. So I used a Micron pen to doodle a couple of flowers on watercolor paper. I don’t consider myself an artist, and I certainly don’t do realistic drawing, but I think these flowers turned out pretty well. I’ve found that if I keep the pen on the paper and draw as much as I can in a continuous line —  redrawing over lines multiple times in a loose style — I’m usually happy with the results.

Once I was done with the drawing, I painted the flowers with Daniel Smith watercolors. You can’t really tell in the picture, but the blue I used for the background has just a little shimmer, which is fun. When the paint was dry, I added some details and shading with colored pencils. I also added a little white splatter using Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White.

I decided the finished panel would look good as a card, so I adhered it to a kraft card base and added a handful of clear droplets. For the finishing touch I wrapped hemp twine twice around the left side of the card front and tied it off in a bow.

I’m excited to try more little projects like this to improve my watercolor skills. Thanks for stopping by!