Day 19--30 Day Coloring Challenge

Watercolor wash and Sharpie

When the Iron Craft Challenges ceased, I was looking for an opportunities to challenge myself creatively. One of the reasons that I liked the Iron Craft Challenges was they would many times force the artists to create something out of their comfort zone. Since you were only making things for yourself, rather than to exchange, as the creator you weren't getting judged or graded. The community was a very supporting one.

I had been on swap-bot before and many times, I always gave better than I received. I didn't mind it so much because I was always looking for opportunities to create and I could always just join the swaps in which I felt comfortably participating. The problem with swap-bot is that all exchanges get rated so if you get a particularly nasty person, and there are plenty, it gets a little disheartening when you are rated down because of a perceived slight especially if they don't give you an opportunity to correct it.

For today's coloring challenge, I decided to share a postcard that I will be sending out today. The theme was a handmade postcard in Orange.

For the front, I did a watercolor wash in shades of orange. I then stenciled an image of a woman's face. This particular stencil has four women's faces so I did a series of four postcards. The top image is the front of the post card after the first treatment.

For the back of the card, I used my alcohol inks with a paisley stencil.

Back of post card

To finish the front of the card and to make it a little sturdier to send through the mail, I put a coat of gloss ModPodge to seal the colors. As you can see, the stenciled imaged lightened in color and the orange watercolor wash really pops.

Finished post card