Textured Watercolor Canvas Tutorial

Hello everyone! I hope you had a lovely weekend! We had weird weather here, with degrees suddenly falling way below zero, and even some snow. We had a nice and quiet Easter. On Saturday we went to town to look at, and photograph, the cherry trees which are flowering. We also picked some flowers from our garden and placed at the scene of last week's attack.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Splash theme - think water, or watercolor. One of my favourite things to do. Remember to check out our guest designer Amy Bethke's post.

I did a double interpretation of the Splash theme - watercolors and an under the sea theme, working on a 8 x 10 in watercolor canvas by Prima. I had fun doing a bunch of different techniques for creating texture on this watercolor piece, and I'll show you how easy they are below. Tim Holtz Sea Life stamp set was perfect for this canvas.

I started by applying gesso at the base of the canvas, where the bottom of the sea would be. By pressing the palette knife into the gesso and pulling it up, I got the textures that you can see here.

The images were stamped with Jet Black ink. I messed up the stamping on the octopus, but could luckily fix it with the help of a stamp positioner.

Apply Opaque Crackle Paste through the Speckles stencil, where the top of the water will be.

I used a Molotow Masking Marker to add bubbles to the background, and also did some through the Splatter stencil. This masking fluid is very easy to use.

After testing that it wouldn't affect the ink, I applied masking fluid all over the stamped images, being careful not to go beyond them since I didn't want a while halo around the images.

The water was painted with watercolors and I pressed cling wrap into the wet paint, shaping it to create texture. Leave until the paint is dry, no peeking!

In the sky area, I sprinkled both fine and chunky salt. Leave until it is dry and then brush off.

Rub off the masking fluid from the images and dots.

Paint the images with watercolors, and add a dot to some of the bubbles.

Paint the gesso with watercolors - don't use too much water or the paint doesn't cover the gesso well.

When dry, wipe off some of the paint from the texture.

Stamp the sea weed with Broken China and Jet Black, off stamping on a scrap paper first for the latter ink.

To add even more texture, I glued some shells to the bottom of the sea and added Crystal Glass Beads. Smear some Matte Medium on the area first and sprinkle with beads.

You can wipe off some of the paint from the crackled foam at the top of the sea. I also painted birds into the sky.

The sentiment was stamped on the background. Also paint shadows under the images.

The cling wrap leaves a very cool textured look. It is one of my favourite watercolor techniques.

I also glued some drops to the background.

The yellow paint I used was a little too opaque and I should have picked a more transparent yellow instead. You can see that on the octopus.

On the seahorse, I only used a tiny bit of the opaque yellow, and instead mainly used a transparent one.

I also glued some seed beads to the background. Add a dot of matte medium with a tooth pick and place the bead into the glue.

The beads at the bottom were a little hard to photograph.

Since the beads are transparent, they add texture, without being overwhelming and drawing too much attention to the bottom of the sea.

Glue some beads on top of the shells too.

I really like Prima's watercolor canvases and they give you a piece which is ready to hang on the wall immediately, without having to add a frame. I also really like to extend my scene onto the sides of the panel. You can also do the techniques on ordinary watercolor paper, of course.

This is the other side, with bubbles. For more inspiration on both the cling wrap and salt technique, check out my Textured Watercolor Journal Page.

I really hope you will join us in our Splash challenge. As every week, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today! Have a lovely week!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Tim Holtz SEA LIFE	Tim Holtz SCRIBBLE WOODLAND	Prima Marketing 8 X 10 WATERCOLOR CANVAS PANEL	Winsor Newton COTMAN WATERCOLORS PLUS 12 Tube Set With Palette	Prima Flowers TROPICALS Watercolor Confections
Prima Flowers THE CLASSICS Watercolor Confections	Molotow ART MASKING LIQUID 2mm FINE TIP PUMP MARKER	Molotow ART MASKING LIQUID 4mm ROUND TIP PUMP MARKER	Molotow ART MASKING LIQUID 30ml Refill	Prima Marketing CRYSTAL Glass Beads
Tim Holtz SPLATTERS	Tim Holtz SPECKLES	Pretty Pink Posh 6MM CLEAR DROPLETS	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO	Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium MATTE
Ranger TEXTURE PASTE OPAQUE CRACKLE	Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK	Darice 6 WELL PAINT PALETTE Plastic Tray	Ranger Inkssentials PIPETTE	Winsor Newton COTMAN SYNTHETIC SABLE 111 ROUND 1
Hero Arts CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCK 4 x 4.5	Hero Arts CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCK 3 by 3

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