Postcards in progress

This weekend, I've made a start on my postcards for iHanna's annual swap

They are a long way from finished yet, but I thought I'd share how I'm getting along so far

I am working on all the backgrounds at once, on 4 large sheets of watercolour paper.

Later I will chop them down to size, attach to postcard blanks, and add a focal image / some words...  I think .... to be honest I haven't really decided yet how I am going to finish these off :)

I should make about 16 postcards from this lot, which gives me the 10 I need for the swap, and some spares for if anyone on Postcrossing requests a handmade card.

I started with a pale underpainting in pastel pink and baby blue - not really my colours, but it'll all be covered up soon enough :)

Used my favourite varitone square dots stencil on top with a dark purple spray paint

Brushed gesso randomly over the top in places

Added a wash all over of lilac Ecoline watercolour, and then added red Ecoline in  places.  Love how it settles  differently on the gesso to the rest of the sheet.  That red Ecoline dried paler than that, more like a dark pink.

There are three steps here as I forgot to take pics, metallic copper and blue acrylic paints brushed randomly, followed by circle designs stencilled using bright red spray paint

Next I sprayed metallic gold paint through a circular dot stencil - it's much shinier than it looks in these pics

A few brush strokes with a darker blue/violet paint, and that's the backgrounds all done

I know they look a mess at the moment, but hopefully once they are cut down, matted, and finished off, they will look ok.  Fingers crossed :)