{Mixed Media Tutorial} MariLynn Watercolors with Stencils

I have a super fun mixed media tutorial I will call watercoloring with stencils.

I will tell you right now that I am not an expert when it comes to watercoloring, but practice helps make us get better, right? I did this on plain white typing paper. I did that on purpose, because it takes away the fear factor. It is just a piece of paper. If I mess up, no big deal. 

I placed the Happy Flowers stencil onto the paper. 

Then I took out some colored pencils. And from this photo on the box you can see I didn't spend a lot of money on these pencils. If you have more expensive pencils you can use them but they aren't necessary. 

I picked these 3 shades of orange. 

I used the pencils to trace the flowers using the stencil.

I also did the stems of the flowers using a green colored pencil.

Next I got out my watercolor set. It is a nice set but just a step above the crayola watercolors that I played with as a kid. 

I took some yellow and colored the first flower. Notice how I colored outside the lines. I did that on purpose. I wanted to use the lines just as a guide. 

Next flower I colored with orange. Again just using the lines as a suggestion.

I did a darker shade of orange for the closed up bloom. 

And for the last flower I used a different shade of orange to watercolor it in.

This next step is when it got really fun. I took the Flourishes stencil and I laid it down over the flowers. 

I used a shade of green paint and painted in the "holes" of the stencil.

This is how it looked after I painted through the Flourishes stencil.

The Flourishes stencil still left lots of white space. In that white space I painted blue. The key to this step looking good is to leave some white spots. I didn't color it in solidly. 

See how much white is still left in the blue areas?

For the flowers I took a contrasting color to color in the centers. 

Here is how it looked when I finished coloring in the centers. 

Then to add even more interest, I added purple to the centers of the flowers.

That was all I did with the water colors. I then took a black ink pen and drew dots in the very centers of the flowers. 

The last touch I did was to scribble on the stems of the flowers with a dark green colored pencil. I also scribbled on the lightest flower with a red colored pencil.

I took this painting and cut it down to fit inside my bible. I hand lettered the words, "FLOWERS OF THE FIELD." I put it in my bible at 1 Peter 1:24-25. I have been practicing hand lettering for over a year now. Again practice make perfect.

I hope that this simple project encourages you to play along. Remember: it doesn't have to be perfect to be art. Blessings.