Colouring - Secret Garden

Of course I had to try Johanna Basford's colouring books, so when I saw 'Secret Garden' at my local store last year, I picked up a copy to give it a try.

I must say that her art work is of the highest quality and I am really enjoying this book.

This double page spread was the first pages I completed - within days of buying the book, I must add...

I used this colour swatch - just love these colours! You can find this one and lots of palettes over at Design Seeds

I basically looked at the pencils I had available and found colours to match as closely as possible. I ended up starting with Derwent Watercolour Pencils, and layering dry pencils over top. Except for the Derwents, most of the pencils are so old, they are no longer available. 

I had a hard time taking a clear enough picture of this page, but you get the idea - I hope.

I added a light line of silver Sharpie marker on the bee's wings. The Sharpies bleed through so one needs to move fast and draw lightly.

I also added a bit of glitter paint to the wings. It is an iridescent paint made by FolkArt. It is hard to capture on camera because it is so subtle.

Finally I added some colour with the water colour pencils to areas in the background. The paper takes water colours remarkably well. I did use a water brush which is not very wet and I also find that over time the slight buckling of the paper flattens back out again. I was very glad for that as I really like working with water colour.

I have quite a few more pages done in this book and I'll be posting more in the future.