"Peacock" - Watercolour painting using Colour Shimmer Cubes by Sue Plumb

Hi Colour Blast friends! 

It's Sue Plumb here today to share my latest design team project with you. You may recall the project I posted earlier this month (a mixed media canvas) was different to the scrapbook pages that I normally create to share here? Creating different types of projects is a good way to get you out of your comfort zone. Today I am stepping well out of mine and sharing a watercolour painting that I created using Colour Shimmer Cubes.

Since I was a child I have always loved to draw and paint. But (like so many of us) I have always been critical of the work I produce. My inner dialogue constantly said "I wish I could draw". And there it is. That self-fulfilling prophecy that serves to reinforce the thought further and keeps you boxed inside your comfort zone. But with age comes wisdom; or least you reach a point where you learn to say "you know what? This makes me happy and I am going to do it anyway". So I did. And here is what I created...

My process for creating this was fairly simple - in a nutshell - I sketched it, then painted it. I started with an A3 sized sheet of 300 gsm watercolour paper, a pencil and an eraser and then roughly sketched out my image. I wasn't looking for perfection, because I knew I was going to paint over it anyway.

Once my design was sketched out, it was time to add some colour! I started with the body, and my Just Blue Colour Shimmer Cube as this was going to be the most dominant colour of my image. To give some variation and depth to my peacock's body, I also added highlights of color using Singin' the Blues; Deep Water and Envy.

Next, I moved onto the feathers. I started with Deep Water, and coloured the spots on the tail feathers. While they dried, I moved onto Apple of my Eye and used it to colour the plumage behind the body. I then went back and painted the outer circles of the tail feathers. After they had also dried, I coloured the inner circles using Sienna.

* Design tip - It is important not to paint over one colour with another unless you are intending to blend them together. Even after it has dried, the paint will reactivate once it is wet again *

I then began adding some detail to my image. I used Dusty Charcoal to paint the "eyes" in the centre of the feathers. I then switched brushes from the small, soft brush I had been using to a fine tipped water brush so I could begin adding detailed strokes to the plumage. I used Deep Water over the top of the existing Apple of my Eye green I had painted, as I knew minimal blending would not give me an undesirable tone. I also painted in some of the tail detail using the same color.

I also used the water brush with the Dusty Charcoal to paint in the detail of the face; then more detail was added to the tail using Stormy Weather, Steel and Apple of my Eye.

I then added some highlights using Bling randomly through the tail, the plumage and on the body.

Once all the paint was dry, I went back and added some small final detail over the top using a Stabilo pencil.

You can see how this added depth to the final result.

Look at the delicious combination of Colour Shimmer Cubes I used for my project...

And look at the equally delicious shimmer they produce...

Thanks for stopping by today so I could share this with you. I hope I have inspired your inner artist to pull your Colour Shimmer Cubes out and paint something with them. Don't listen to that voice of inner doubt that tells you you can't - just do it because it's fun and it makes you happy!

(If you do paint something with your Colour Shimmer Cubes and feel brave enough to share, I would really love to see them! You can post them in the Colour Blast Creative Corner group and please tag me so I don't miss them!)

Til next time, happy scrapping (or painting!) ;)