Ok, so here goes my first tutorial!

I am going to show you how I use gamsol and paper stumps to get a water color look to my images.

I purchased the Odorless Mineral Spirits (A.K.A. gamsol) at Wal-Mart for $7.93. I purchased the sponges at Michaels for $4.99, they came in a package of 3 types. I used the hard sea sponge and cut it into small sections. I used an old Pimentos jar and placed a small piece of sponge in it with a small amount of the spirits. The paper stumps were purchased at a local Hobby Shop and were about $3.99 and came in a package of 6 various sizes.

Here I used the new Hero Art Stamp set, I believe her name is Lilly (I think) She is so adorable!! I have my Stazon ink which works very well with the gamsol, my heat gun, prisma pencils and water color paper.

I stamp my image onto the watercolor paper using the stazon ink and heat set it with my heat gun.

Then I took my brown Prisma pencil and just traced a few hair lines, not many as they will blend later. Then I used my small paper stump and dipped it onto my sponge that has been soaking in gamsol. The tip will get wet, don't let it get to, to wet or it will be mushy. After you have practiced, you will get the hang of it. Then I make small circles using the stump and going over the lines I made with the prisma pencil.

You will see as you start doing this what I am talking about. It is so neat! It looks like you watercolored your picture! It is VERY forgiving, you can keep going over it until you get the desired shade.

Ok, now onto the face, same idea, go around the edges, then in SMALL (I can't emphasize this enough, small circles to blend!!) work your way in from the edges towards the middle. The center of the face will be highlighted due to lack of color. I continued the same process for the entire wardrobe. Always pick your light source, I really don't have a recipe for this per-say, I just go by what looks good.

And there you have it!! Lilly is complete! As you can see from the picture, I made a few mistakes ;) I am learning too!! I shadowed her on the right side and highlighted her on the right side as well. Next time I will reverse her highlight to the opposite side and keep the shadow on the right side. But you get the idea. If you have any questions, please drop me a line. Thanks for checking it out!!