Butterfly Garden

Hello everyone!  Really excited to be sharing my first blog post here on the Brutus Monroe Blog!  I hope my project inspires you to create something beautiful!

Today I'm using the new Butterfly Garden Stamp.  This is a stunning stamp!    I had to modify how I stamped this image because of its size.  I actually laid the stamp on my glass mat and laid my piece of 140lb watercolor on top of the stamp that was inked with Antique Linen ink.  I pressed quite hard  as I only would have the one chance to stamp my image this way.

In order not to get confused, I painted a pale wash of green over all of the leaves.  This is a great help in identifying everything else.  I used the stamp set as a guide.

I used Karin Markers for my watercoloring today.  For the leaves I used Lime, Olive Green and Olive Black.  I gradually deepened each leaf and varied how dark each one became. I scribbled the marker on my glass mat and picked up color with my paintbrush.  I used my marker directly on the paper only in the darkest spots and making sure my paper was still wet.

Please note that the leaves, although varied in intensity, are all basically the same color.  I moved on to the big flowers.  For colors I used Skin, Rose Pink, Burgundy and touches of Copper Brown.

I painted each petal separately.  I wet each petal and picked up color off the glass mat. Again I used marker to paper only at the end to get deep shadows at the base of each petal.  I really tried to leave a lot of light area at the tops of the petals.

The berries at the top of the image I painted with Egyptian Blue and the stems with the Copper Brown.  For the yellow berries I used Pale Orange, Gold and Ochre.  For the spikey flowers I used a mix of my colors and the result was a soft violet.  I painted the butterflies using colors I had already placed elsewhere.  I also added Black and Neutral Gray on the wings.

Once everything was dry I used the following Copic markers to gently tint elements.  I used Y00, R00, E00, YR02 and B41.  I tinted the leaves and the bigger pink flowers.  I added splatter with white gouache and Pearl Shimmer Mist.  I also watered down a bit of the Olive Green marker and splattered with that as well.

I mounted my card onto a Lunch Bag slimline base that measures 10 3/4" x 4".  My painted panel was trimmed 1/4" smaller and adhered to the base with foam tape.  I used a shimmer pen on the butterfly wings and my card was complete!

Such a beautiful stamp!  It could be used in part on a smaller card.  And the color combinations are, of course, endless!

Supplies:

Butterfly Garden Stamp                                                                                                  Karin Brushmarker Pro     - Lime, Olive Green, Olive Black, Skin, Rose Pink, Burgundy, Copper Brown, Pale Orange, Gold, Ochre, Egyptian Blue, Black and Neutral Gray                                                                                                                                                                                                           Pearl Shimmer Mist                                                                                                        Lunch Bag Card Stock                                                                                               140lb Cold Press Watercolor Paper                                                                           #2 Watercolor Paintbrush                                                                                           Foam Tape                                                                                                                        Antique Linen Distress Ink                                                                                            Shimmer Pen                                                                                                              Copic Markers - Y00, R00, E00, YR02, B41