eller

Another postcard for someone on postcrossing - this time, it's a combination of drawing, painting, and papercut. It has transparent windows! The book page, inkwell, ink blob and large leaves are see-through.



Materials:
Watercolor paper: Florence watercolor paper, smooth, white, 200gsm. This was a bit of a compromise: it's the thinnest possible paper for watercoloring, but the thickest possible paper for reasonable papercutting. (Still: not much detail possible.)
Transparent paper: Folia, 115 gsm (I chose the thicker variety, for obvious reasons), light green.
Fineliners: Staedtler, different sizes.
Acrylic pens: FlySea, white and black.
Watercolors: various brands, no idea which was what. It was not my watercolor box. I'm not at home and didn't grab the box in my bag when there was a perfectly good one open on the table.
Knife: snap-off utility knife. Cheap but good. XD Seriously, it performed really well (as in: non-wobbly, good angle, and ergonomic in my hand) but it's a no-name thingy, no manufacturer printed on or anything.
Varnish: LUKAS spray varnish, satin gloss. (Added to protect the watercolors before gluing everything together.)
Spray glue: Ghiant Hightac, an ancient can. Oh well, it came out a bit yellowed and blotchy but it still worked... Somehow.

More pictures (of the papercutting and of what the card looks like with backlighting) behind the cut.

( Pictures! )

I'll definitely make more cards with this technique. It's so much fun! :D

Two animal postcards for people on Postcrossing.





Both cards are made with acrylic pens (various brands) on watercolor paper (JAXON Aquarell Postkarten, and by the way, those suck, I am only using the box up so they are finally gone). I like that the acrylic pens behave almost like watercolors when you spread the color with a wet paintbrush but are waterproof after drying. I used spray varnish on the cards anyway, to protect them in the mail.

Just something quick I drew for someone on Postcrossing - the person likes hippos, but unfortunately, I didn't have a hippo card in my collection, so I made one. I had to use lots of references for the animal because I simply don't see them very often. (Fortunately. I don't particularly want to encounter one...)

I'm mainly posting this because I (finally) took the opportunity to use one of the Schmincke supergranulating watercolors I was posting about a few days ago. All that grainy dark blue that brings out the paper texture is done with layers of Tundra Blue (PB29, PBr7) over the other colors. I think it's especially noticeable when you compare the earthy shore (no supergranulating layer, just ochre - ironically, my favorite ochre is a very cheap one but I love the tone - and some purplish PR102) to its mirror image in the water (same paints, but with a layer of Tundra Blue over it).



Materials I used:
JAXON watercolor postcard paper (approx. A6 size)
Copic Multiliner in 0.4 and BM (brush)
Watercolors: BLOCKX Blockx Red (PR254), Michael Harding Yellow Lake (PY180), Phoenix Yellow Ochre (PY42), Nila Colori Armenian Violet Ochre (PR102), Mijello Bamboo Green (PG36), Daniel Smith Jadeite Genuine, Daler Rowney Manganese Blue Hue, Schmincke Horadam Tundra Blue (PB29, PBr7), Rembrandt Spinel Grey (PBk26)
FlySea Acrylic pen, white, fine

This one is a papercut card I did send on Postcrossing. Someone stated they like horses, I happen to like horses too, so the decision was easy! Also, it's a very fast work (20 min or something), so I didn't feel bad about giving it away.



Papercutting is one of those art forms that are incredibly complicated and slooooow when you're a beginner, but where the working speed increases exponentially with practice - and, of course, if you've ever watched really experienced papercutters, you'll know they'll produce something like this in two minutes or less. (Interestingly, it tends to be faster than drawing the same thing!) Basically, I'm viewing pieces like this as practice. It's cut from one of these super cheap white square note sheets that come in those plastic cubes - you know what I mean. Fixed with spray glue on 300gsm construction paper. Simple, but I kind of like the composition, and I hope the recipient will enjoy it.

Two more postcards for Postcrossing. Simple flowers, my comfort zone - I can produce these reasonably fast.





The daffodil actually does not involve any watercolor - that's transparent acrylics with lots of water. The magnolia is colored with watercolors, in the same style. The preliminary drawings and final highlights were done with acrylic pens.

No sketchbook pics yet, sorry, those will have to follow tomorrow - but here's another postcard I made for Postcrossing.



I used black and white acrylic pens, a grey marker, and... Schmincke is selling bottled opaque white these days (it has to be very new, I just saw it for the first time), and clearly, they developed that product just for me. XD It behaves just like white watercolor (as in, it can be diluted with water), it's just slightly more opaque overall, and slightly less rewettable when dry (which is good for layers) and dries with a matte finish. I'm very happy.

This is another one for Postcrossing! I really like getting people who state on their profile that they like handmade postcards - that way I know the effort won't be wasted. (Some people collect only "professional" postcards, and that's fine. I just like to know, so I don't spend an hour on a card when the recipient would have been happier with something store-bought for 20 cents. I don't have the time to make cards for everyone, so I'm limiting that to those who explicitly state they like self-made things.) Anyway, this random person likes frogs and handmade cards, so I did the obvious thing and drew a frog for her.



The drawing is, unfortunately, on really crappy paper - I had once ordered a pack of 100 blank A6 postcards on Amazon, and while I received those 100 postcards, and they're not even flimsy or anything (350 g/sqm is a perfectly solid weight), they're kind of the worst of both worlds: extremely smooth (like, smoother than Bristol board) so working with pencils won't work, but buckling when they get wet. :/ The only medium that kind of works on them is acrylic pen. I also used fast washes of liquid acrylic color for the background of the leaf, but that was already kind of risky... I hate these cards, but I feel like I have to use them up somehow. Anyway, I'm getting faster with those small drawings, so, yay?