#172 Playing with my Peerless ...
Saturday, January 03, 2015Watercolors!
And LOVING it!
It's been way too long since I've spent any quality time in my studio ... and needless to say ... I had fun reconnecting. My daughter has become an expert with my Peerless Watercolors but I haven't had the chance to get to know them like she has ... so I spent an entire afternoon and evening playing away ... and I had SO MUCH FUN! Here are a few of my favorites ... and my NOT so favorite!
It's been way too long since I've spent any quality time in my studio ... and needless to say ... I had fun reconnecting. My daughter has become an expert with my Peerless Watercolors but I haven't had the chance to get to know them like she has ... so I spent an entire afternoon and evening playing away ... and I had SO MUCH FUN! Here are a few of my favorites ... and my NOT so favorite!
But first ... Ink.
After
some trial and error it was evident that I had to stamp and emboss my
images because my ink kept running when the artist medium (below) came
in contact with it. I stamped with my Tuxedo Black Memento Ink pad and
then used Transcendence Powder (made for embossing with dye ink pads) to
emboss the image. The Transcendence is just like clear embossing
powder ... it is very fine and embosses with ink pad dyes you generally
don't emboss with. LOVE it! Here is the first link I googled for and
found it: Transcendence.
Artists' Secret ...
 |   |
Masking Fluid ... LOVE! I picked mine up at our local WalMart in the tiny
little fine arts section ... but who's complaining ... I'm THRILLED
they have it! I use a paint brush to apply it. WARNING: TEENAGE
daughters who like your art supplies will LOVE!
Apply and let it dry. It goes on milky and opaque and dries clear like shown above. My thought process was that I wanted to drop in my background colors in one glorious swoop versus having to color around all of those flowers and stems.
Apply and let it dry. It goes on milky and opaque and dries clear like shown above. My thought process was that I wanted to drop in my background colors in one glorious swoop versus having to color around all of those flowers and stems.
Here you can see where I dropped in my background, let it dry and then rolled off the medium. Believe it or not ... it's very addicting!
Preparing to Paint ...
I'm
using watercolor paper that I pick up at my local WalMart ... it's less
than $6 per pad ... can't beat that! So that it doesn't bend and
flutter and warp all around when it gets wet ... I adhere it to a
cutting mat, with washi tape, while I'm working on it.
Let the fun begin!
So
here's something about me you didn't know ... I stamp everything in
3's. Seriously! After watercoloring my first two sets of flowers,
Sophie came in and said 'What about the grass?'
"What do you mean?"
"Uh, your flowers are growing in the sky."
Details, details, details ... she did learn something from her mama after all these years creating with me! LOL! I was having so much fun experimenting with my blues I forgot all about my image! So I dropped in some olive green and let it dry. Another reason why you need images in triplicate ... you have to have something to do while the other pieces are drying.
"What do you mean?"
"Uh, your flowers are growing in the sky."
Details, details, details ... she did learn something from her mama after all these years creating with me! LOL! I was having so much fun experimenting with my blues I forgot all about my image! So I dropped in some olive green and let it dry. Another reason why you need images in triplicate ... you have to have something to do while the other pieces are drying.
My Favs:
I
LOVE this piece! From the moment I laid down the first blue! You can
see how the watercolor just goes right over the masking fluid. You
might also notice that I took a pencil and sketched in a box around my
flower for a guideline. If you are familiar with watercolor pieces you
know that artists typically leave their pencil marks on the piece ... I
do both.
I finished it by matting it on a watercolor card base ... just like a watercolor painting.
I
looked and looked for my white gel pen ... and would have loved to use
it on this piece ... but that didn't happen. I still like this but wish
I could add some highlights with a white pen! Like all my work ... I'm
heavy handed with the color ... I need to watch that next time!
Not a fabulous piece ... but super fun to color!
What to Avoid ...
Total
experiment! I ended up using my silver Signo gel pen ... because I'd
already lost the piece. Here's why I'm sharing this though ...
I
had peeled off the masking fluid BEFORE I added the blue ink ... and
then decided I wanted to see what the blue would look like. So ... I
applied layer #2 of artists masking fluid, let that dry and then added
the blue paint. And then ... my paper tore when I was peeling it off.
No more than 1 layer of masking fluid!
The fix ... I grabbed a Micron pen and filled in the area I tore off.
Just fun to play ...
Playing is important ... you need to mix colors and see what they do!
My first attempt piece of the day.
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