African Night Watercolor Tutorial

Hello friends! The very warm and dry weather continues here. It is basically South African summer weather, but without the rain storms. We have been going to swim in the late afternoon when it cools down a little. The weather also inspired my project for this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog.

Thank you to everyone who hopped along with us in last week's Christmas in July blog hop. This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Wild Things theme. Fun! Don't miss the last project by our July guest designer Karolina Bukowska.

I was missing South Africa and made an African night scene in my art Dylusions Small Creative art journal. It was such fun to make and I actually made a whole bunch of little watercolor backgrounds. The stamps are by Darkroom Door. The background was colored with Dina Wakley's Scribble Sticks, and is very easy to do.

Start by sketching the outline of a hill on a piece of watercolor paper and add a moon with Molotow Art Masking Liquid. I also added stars, but if you will use Scribble Sticks like I did, you can skip the stars, since they will rub off. If you color the scene with ordinary watercolor paint or with Distress Ink, add the stars.

Scribble over the scene with Scribble Sticks. You want to get a lot of pigment on the page. Go lightly over the moon, otherwise you will rub off the masking liquid. I used both Set 1 and Set 2 of the Scribble Sticks.

Use a paint brush and clean water to dissolve the Scribble Stick marks and blend them. Before the background dried completely, I drew some trees, sticks and grass at the top of the hill with a black Derwent Inktense pencil. The Inktense pencils dissolve when water is applied, so if the background isn't completely dry, you get an immediate watercolor look. When the background is completely dry, you can add even more detail. Rub off the masking fluid.

Ink stamps with Black Soot, mist with water for a watercolor effect and stamp. The stamps are all from the African Trees set. Add grasses, shadows and more trees with the black Inktense pencil. Dissolve some of it with water and a paint brush.

Use a white gel pen and a little white acrylic paint to add stars to the sky and highlights to the ground. With a dry brush, add shine around the moon with the white paint.

I looked for some Clippings Stickers that fitted my thoughts behind the page, and was happy with the combination of these three lines.

The smaller dots are from the white gel pen and the larger from the paint - applied with a tooth pick.

There is a thin pencil line around the moon, from when I traced the moon with a coin. I left it in place, since I liked the effect.

The grasses and drawn trees add interest and are easy to do.

When you apply Scribble Sticks as thickly as I did here, some texture remains, which I liked for this page. If you don't want the texture, apply the Scribble Sticks more lightly.

I hope you will join us this week in our Wild Things challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next 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 for taking the time to stop by my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

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