Elegant Floral Ink Wreath for a DIY Greeting Card.
Hi guys! This year I received a commission to design a lovely set of personalized greeting cards. I was given a complete artistic freedom and since it was before the Mother’s Day, I designed an elegant and simple floral wreath and decided to film a short video about my drawing process.
I love designing a sketch on a vellum paper first to see how it looks and how it fits the card without damaging the paper too much. Final drawing was made on Arches 300lb Rough watercolor paper because I like the sturdiness and the sophisticated feel of a thick paper, but it is still a very delicate surface and if you start drawing your sketch right on the watercolor paper, make sure not use eraser too much or it will damage the paper and ink/watercolors won’t go on smoothly. Inking was done with a Hunt 513 nib and Daler-Rowney Fw pearlescent inks ( I mixed pink, red and black to get this nice dusty pink tone). Inks that are made with the same formula, like acrylic inks, can be mixed with each other; however, remember to shake the bottles really good before using inks, pigments tend to accumulate on the bottom and you might get a very weak color.
Don’t feel intimidated by the fact that I’m using a dipping pen. It is very simple technique and you can pick up any dipping pen set to try it, I’m using a speedball brand nib and nib holder in this tutorial, or simply use any color jell pen or a marker.
Full list of supplies is listed at the end of the post. Enjoy the video!
I designed a total of 5 cards in that set and having an original sketch on vellum paper allowed me to quickly copy the designs on all the cards making them look consistent.
Here is a final picture of a finished product with the name added and some color touches on the flowers.
The supplies I used for this tutorial:
– Arches 300lb Rough watercolor paper
– Hunt 513 nib and Speedball nib holder
– Daler-Rowney FW Acrylic pearlescent inks (red, pink and black)
– Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils for sketching
Thank you for reading and watching! You can check out my Youtube channel for more videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvomEnzg7HfXsMs47pJpYrA?view_as=subscriber
And visit my Etsy shop to see more of the cars I make
https://www.etsy.com/shop/KKhrystyFineArt
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