Grungy Art Journal Page with Watercolor Flowers

Hi everyone!

Although popular, I'm the first to admit that watercolors are actually my least favorite medium. However, I was intrigued by this small five pan set by Kuretake, which is relatively new here in Europe. Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors are an upper end brand, but I was lucky to get the set on sale. The set includes Aurora Red, Aurora Pink, Aurora Orange, Aurora Blue and Aurora Violet plus an empty pan for mixing.  At first I was sceptical, as the paint in the pans looked drab, but once activated with water they have a wonderful granulation and color dispersion. You can see this effect on my swatches in my watercolor sketchbook. It takes a bit of experimentation, but I feel the more water is added the better the color effects! It's best to not manipulate the water and just let it air dry. Once completely dry, the full two-tone color dispersion can be seen and admired. Side note: The colors are definitely not as bright as on the package.

Of course, now that I have them I will need to use them. I wanted to create something in my junky handmade art journal. So I grabbed some watercolor pencils, a few acrylic gouache paints, some crayons and some favorite stamps. I opened the journal and chose a random spread with pages that already had some colors and marks on them. I started by loosely putting down some colors with a flat brush. 

I continued brushing on paint. I used a sky blue, light turquoise, prussian blue and rose. I also used my fingers to blend in some white. I made some marks with a black crayon and added some splatters with white acrylic ink. This "playing" is just so relaxing, and since it's done in my junk journal there is no pressure to create a masterpiece.

Once satisfied with my background, I set the journal aside to focus on my focal images. I stamped some floral motifs on a white sheet of paper and colored them in using small round brushes in size 4 and size 6. While the images were still wet, I went in with my watercolor pencils to add some details and enhance the flowers. I set these aside to dry completely. 

Now that I've experimented with the Kuretake watercolors I must say, that while I appreciate the color dispersion and granulating effect, I find that it is not as pronounced on a small area. The colors are probably more effective as a background wash or when painting sky or seascapes. I felt the two-tone effect did not show up as well on a small and detailed image like those above.

Anyway, back to my background. I stamped some of my favorite grungy stamps in some areas. And once the flower motifs were dry I cut them out, but I wasn't too precise about it, as I was just going to stick them on my junk journal pages.

I adhered the floral images on the pages with a glue stick and also added a little sentiment. "Progress not Perfection." And indeed, I made some progress as far as painting with watercolors goes. Controlling the amount of water seems to be of paramount importance. I feel these granulating colors will be fun to use on larger areas. Good to know for future projects!

Thank you for reading along and I hope you enjoyed my little art journal demonstration. And if you missed it - a quick reminder that I launched my mini workshop last week. If you are interested you can click on the button in the side bar or follow this link.