Clarity Challenge No 1 - March

March 1st was "D" day for Clarity Stamps fans, being the launch of the Clarity Challenge Blog.  The very first challenge is "Anything Goes", which left it completely open to choose theme, style or what we wanted to make.  The only stipulation is to use Clarity stamps, which still gives us a pretty wide choice.

I could not decide what to choose, but this card made itself.  It was intended to be a scene for another challenge, but just would not go in that direction, so I just let it go where it wanted.  The stamps are all Clarity.  The only extras are a few pencil lines to extend the ground slopes and a few animals in the distance.  I also drew in a smaller cabin with a man coming out with his dog, up in the top right, among the trees.

Stamps used:- Large sprucescape, small spruce, wooden cabin, and the two riders

Other things used:- Watercolour card, Derwent Watercolour Pencils, Derwent Graphics Pencils, Twinkling H2O (To highlight the sun's rays, but it does not show up on the photos), PDA Pearlescent Card for mounting.

I also put in the pond close to the cabin, just using the watercolours.  It was intended to be a stream coming down the hills, but just looked wrong so I settled for the pond.  I also wanted to put in some more animals closer in but my drawing is not good enough yet - something else to aim at for the future.  

I love using the watercolour pencils and they are my media of choice at the moment.  They give you the chance to get good delicate shading and are more forgiving than Promarkers for landscapes.  On this occasion, I used them dry, except for the water in the pond.   when I do use water, any watercolour purist would have a fit to see that I use a waterbrush, the sort with the barrel full of water.  It is much safer in the caravan when you have two hurricane dogs, who launch themselves at the window if they see a bird or another dog.  I got used to using it there and tend to stick to it at home.  Used gently, you can get quite delicate lines.

Now I am off to post this to the Clarity Blog and then to have a look at what everyone else has done.  I avoided doing that earlier as I wanted to go my own way without taking anything from anyone else..  Can't wait to see now.

To all those lovely people out there in Blogland, thank you so much for all your good wishes while I had that fluey thing, and I hope that anyone else who has it soon feels much better.