Color Me Happy: AECP Polychromatic Class and the HLS Watercolor Challenge

One of my happy places is my craft desk. I have a few happy places – our family beach house, family farm, a bookstore, my bed (haha) and my craft desk. Lately, for obvious reasons, I have been spending a lot of time at my craft desk. I join card challenges, take coloring classes, all in the comfort of my desk. Overall, I am happiest when I am able to create.

This month’s Happy Little Stampers Watercolor Challenge is highlighting the option of embossing on your projects. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to give you inspiration from the AECP course I am currently taking.

I am happy too that this Altenew Academy : AECP Polychromatic class is the last class of the Level 2 certification. Then I go on to the final Level 2 project! I completed the Level 1 and and if I pass Level 2, then I’m on to Level 3 and well on my way to be a certified instructor. It would be exactly a years time to the day when I got my acceptance into the certification program!

This Polychromatic class teaches about colors and combinations of colors – basically how to demystify choosing color combinations for projects.

In the first part of my blog, I will give some quick tips on painting with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers on vellum paper. The second part will touch on the different color combinations based on the color theory.

Using Zigs on Vellum

First, I heat embossed several images from the Spring Daisy stamp set on vellum with Antique Gold crisp embossing powder. I love this Antique Gold embossing powder so much that this is my second bottle!

A quick tip on coloring on vellum. Color on the back side of the vellum. That way, if you have any blending challenges from one color to the next, it becomes less obvious.

Another tip is to use a light flicking motion upwards then do the same for the next color – they blend more naturally that way.

Now, I will take you briefly through what I have learned about choosing color combinations for my projects.

What is Polychromatic?

Polychromatic is using several colors in a project. In order to understand this more, one must be familiar with the basics of the color wheel.

I can go on and on about color theory but for the sake of keeping it brief, just remember these three basic color combos: Analogous and Complementary and Monochromatic colors. I will be showcasing the two cards for each combination and explaining a little about them. I will also be giving some examples of my older projects. And because this is a watercolor challenge, I will be showing only my watercolor projects.

Analogous Colors

For the card I made above, I used analogous colors. These are colors that “sit” next to each other in the color wheel. In this case, Red, Orange and Yellow. I used the Gold Stream washi as accent and splattered coordinating gold metallic paint from the Metallic Watercolor paint set.

Here is another example of a card that also uses analogous colors. In this case, Green, Blue and Purple.

Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are those colors sitting opposite each other in the color wheel. Referring to the color wheel above, examples of complementary colors are Orange and Blue or Purple and Yellow.

Here are two examples of cards with the complementary color palette. I used Analogous colors for the Sweet Pea flower but used the complementary color of yellow for the background.

And here is another using a combination of complementary colors. This time I used a combination of complementary colors: Dark Pink & Yellow tulips paired with Blue and Purple tulips.

Monochromatic Colors:

This basically means, using a color palette from the same color family. Here I used mainly greens in varying hues and shades.

Here is another card I made using with a Monochromatic palette. The flower, background and matting are all in varying shades of blue.

I encourage you to check out the Altenew Academy Polychromatic class, there you will learn not only how to choose the best color combinations but several card making techniques as well.

I sincerely hope my watercolor cards gave you some inspiration. I am looking forward to seeing your beautiful work over at the HLS Watercolor challenge!

‘Til next time!

❤️

Anna

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