I Never Get Tired of Sunflowers

Especially this time of year, I just love sunflowers, and this is one of my favorite sunflower stamps.  It's from Starving Artistamps, and it's so much fun to color.  I've used everything from colored pencils, to paper piecing, to Copic markers...it comes out great no matter what!

This time I decided to try yet another way to color the flower.  I used Derwent Inktense pencils to create the base underpainting for the flower.  I started by stamping the image onto watercolor paper with Ranger Archival Ink.  Then, I very loosely colored the flower and leaves, and washed the colors with a waterbrush.  The background was created basically the same way.  I chose 3 shades of red and a gold and scribbled patches of color all over the background, then used a waterbrush to pull the color outward from the image toward the edges.  Once everything was dry, I used my colored pencils to add shading and highlights to the flower and leaves.  I also dotted on some red, black, and cinnamon colored Stickles in the flower center.  Since this is such a large image, I cut it out "outside the box" style so that I could add some borders and a few dew drops.  I have to say, this version is one of my favorites!

And, here's the latest progress pic of my dining room project.  I still need to find a replacement for the chandelier (I HATE the one that's there), and I need to finish up some of the woodwork, but the bulk of it is done...Yay!  I love the way it turned out, and now I'm itching to tackle the living room.  You know how it goes...one project begets another!

See you later.  I have some drawing homework to get after.