Transferring designs, skills from one media to another

One of my favourite things to do is watercolour painting, which I returned to a couple of years ago, by going to classes with Matthew Palmer.  Last month, our class painted his snow leopard, which was quite testing but enjoyable.

This is my version

Matthew always gives us a small outline for reference.  I really fancied playing with that to see what I could do with it.  So I decided to try transferring it from a medium using a lot of water to parchment which hates water.  Is the woman completely mad?  Probably!

First job was to use a white Pergamano pencil to transfer the outline roughly to the front of the parchment.

 Then I turned it over, rubbed Dorso Oil all over the back and blended Dorso Crayons,which were roughly the same colours as the paints on Matthew's original, to create the background.  Everything else was done on the front, using the Perga Liners, and my Derwent blender pencil.

This looks rubbish, doesn't it, quite ghostly.

It was just a case of gradually building it up, and adding the spots and stripes, and starting to give him a face and expression.  It was an interesting process but needed me to think and work very differently from the original painting techniques.

It was colouring the eyes that really gave him life, and adding his whiskers and fluffy edges as Matthew taught us.  I also did a little embossing, on the eyes and the nose, which helps to highlight them and give his face more shape.

Then, I mounted it on Clarity designer paper to enhance what I had already done with the background, before putting it on black card and the final base card.

The insert and envelope were added, using the same designer paper to keep everything together.

Once I was happy with the way things were going, I decided it was just what I wanted for a very special lady's special birthday.  Now that Barbara Gray has had her card and opened it, I can show it.

I enjoyed the challenge and I am very grateful for the original inspiration from Matthew Palmer, with the addition of techniques learned from Barbara Gray and her team.  It is great how you can mix techniques learned in one area with a different arena.