weekend art project

This is a fun project for the young or young at heart.

If you’re lucky enough to have flowers in you back yard, you can pick ones you think will make a good stamp. Out of all the flowers I tried, only the daisy worked. You can find daisy or flowers similar to daisy just about anywhere that sells flowers.

I picked a bunch of flowers I thought might work.

You need to pour the paint onto a flat surface; I used a piece of watercolor paper. Then dip the flower into the paint. I started out using gesso.

Watercolor Wednesday, painting with plastic wrap

I started out with 140 lb. watercolor paper. Using a large brush I applied enough water to the paper to get it completely wet. I brushed on yellow and orange paint. After the paint dried I wet the paper again, this time I put plastic wrap on top of the paper. I bunched the plastic up, and then poured some red, orange and blue paint down the folds in the plastic. I did not remove the plastic until the paint was dry. Using a wet brush I then splattered paint onto the painting. Using watercolor pencils I darkened the edges of the blue and red paint. I did not take pictures during the process of this painting. If you need step-by-step pictures to understand what I did, just ask and I will do the process again, this time taking pictures. It is a lot of fun to do. 

Water soluble oil pastels with gesso

I tried another water-soluble oil pastel painting using what I figured out from the first painting. I built up several layers using oil pastels, gesso, water-soluble markers and paint markers. It was very relaxing making simple shapes and using different colors combinations.  I’m sure I will be will be playing with my oil pastels again.

Water soluble oil pastels as a background

 

I love my water-soluble oil pastels, I use them all the time to lighten up a painting that has gone to dark. I have not used them for a background yet, so I thought I would lay some colors down and go from there. I could not use my pens, so no sharp lines. The only markers that worked were the water-soluble brush tip markers. Pencils mostly just digged into the oil. Inktense blocks and watercolor painted on with a brush was the best way to do shading and shadows.

If I use the oil pastels for a background again it will be for a painting that does not need sharp lines.  

Zentangle inspired fish

I had not drawn in zentangles in ages, so for fun I pulled out a background painting to draw on. I stared at the painting looking for shapes to draw the zentangle patterns in. What I saw was a big fish trying to swallow a little fish, with a smaller fish in the distance. Fish are easy, because their scales are a pattern. Plants, rocks even water are all patterns. The trick was adding colors that would look good with the mostly yellow and orange colors already in the background. This painting was a lot of fun to do, and I love my cartoonish fish. I strongly suggest if your want to get your creative juices flowing, just pull out an unfinished painting and see what you can see in it.  I have done more of these painting; it is so much fun, and a good way to use up your background paintings.

Acrylic splatter paintings

I was not crazy about the alcohol in the mister, but I liked the alcohol on splattered paint. So I tried a couple more paintings, this time using alcohol in a dropper again. The first painting is metallic blue on gold paint on watercolor paper. The second painting is a mix of orange, red and yellow acrylic paint on acrylic paper. I love both of the paintings; I will use this technique again.

Rubbing alcohol in a mister on acrylic paint.

Here are two more experiments with rubbing alcohol in a mister. The effect is different than a dropper in that you can’t see threw to the first layer. So I decided not to cover the entire first layer with paint.

I like the outcome, but I don’t think I will be using alcohol in the mister again.

Layers of blue acrylic paint

This is another experiment with rubbing alcohol. I started with a background I had in my pile of not quite good enough paintings

I covered the painting with a layer of watered down blue acrylic paint. This time instead of a dropper I used a mister. The effect was not what I wanted visually, but there was a wonderful wavy texture.

I splattered watered down blue paint onto the painting, then let the paint run along the grooves in the painting.

Lots of circles

The first layer of this painting was I playing with stencil, random marks with ink pens and splattering acrylic paints. The colors were mostly warm colors. On its own, it was not much to look at, so I decided to draw circles using jar lids as templates. I painted around the circles with light purple acrylic paint.

I shaded the inside of the circles with green inktense pencils. I added shadows to the outside of the circles with blue and purple inktense pencils.

I still did not love this painting, so I decided to try the alcohol and acrylic technique. I mixed some yellow acrylic paint and water in an old aspirin bottle, and then poured some of the paint onto the painting. With the paint still wet, I dripped some alcohol onto the paint with a dropper

I then added some more shading, shadowing and highlights using inktense pencils. I love the vibrant colors I get from my inktense pencils; they are becoming one of my favorite art supplies. I think the painting has a wonderful depth to it, I’m very happy with the finished painting.

More examples of alcohol on acrylics

With this painting I started by painting watercolor paper with a layer of orange paint. After the paint dried I painted watered down yellow acrylic on top, and with the paint still wet I dripped alcohol on top with a dropper.  After that paint dried I painted 2/3 of the paper with red paint. After that paint dried I painted over the red with watered down blue paint. I tilted the page to let some of the blue to drip off the page. With the paint still wet I dripped alcohol onto the blue with a dropper. I am happy with how this painting turned out, I’m sure I will use this technique often.

I started this painting with yellow, red and orange for the first layer. After that paint dried, I painted watered down yellow acrylic on top of that. With the yellow still wet I dripped the alcohol on top with a dropper. I like this painting a lot. I have not decided if I want to use it as a background, of just keep it as is.

The process for this painting is the same as the second example, only the blue paint is not as watered down with the exception that the blue paint is thinner.  

Acrylics & alcohol

This is another fun technique that does not take a  lot of supplies. I found an old YouTube video I like that does a good job of describing the proses.  Acrylics & Alcohol don't mix, or do they? 

For my first example I started by painting a piece of watercolor paper with yellow acrylic paint, then I let the paint dry completely. Next I thinned down some red acrylic paint and covered the entire painting, before the paint could dry I used a dropper to drip some rubbing alcohol onto the paint. I was very happy with the results.

For my second example I painted a piece of watercolor paper with black acrylic paint, before the paint dried I painted on top of the black with watered down blue and white acrylic paint. With all the paint still wet, I splattered on the alcohol using a brush. The paint blended more than I wanted, but it still looks interesting.

Watercolor and glue

This technique is easy and does not take a lot of supplies. To start with scribble a pattern onto watercolor paper using any kind of glue; I used Elmer’s glue-all.

Next, spray the paper with water, then ad the watercolor.  The color will pool around the glue. Check out Blue and orange collage, stationery box to see what I made with the painting.

I tried the technique again, this time I put some salt on the page to add some texture.

I did not feel like I was getting enough contrast, so I tried again, this time I painted the watercolor paper yellow first. After the paint dried I drew the pattern with the glue. Then I poured on watercolor I had already mixed with water. To add interest I splattered some  paint onto the paper using my paintbrush.

I liked the last painting the best. I would suggest that you pick a color you want for your background, then make whatever pattern you want with the glue, then mix watercolor or acrylic paint with water and pour it onto the paper to pool next to the glue, leaving some of the background to show. 

Mother’s day card

This is the card I made for my mother for Mother’s Day. As a little kid, I was always picking flowers for her. Looking back, I’m sure I must have brought home a lot of weeds, but she was always happy to get them.

For the background of my flowers I glued gold marbleized paper onto cardstock using gel medium. I glued tissue paper with glitter on it on top of the paper.

I colored the sky with blue soft pastels and the grass with green.

I painted the flowers using puffy paints, and drew in the stems with colored pencils. I colored the edge of the cardstock using a blue marker, and then wrapped blue yarn around the card. Then I glued the cardstock with the flowers onto a light blue cardstock.

I wanted the card to look a little rough to remind my mother of the flowers I used to pick for her. I hope she likes the card.

Painting on tissue paper

I liked the painted tissue paper I made by trying a lot of techniques on one project, so I tried to recreate it.

I started by painting a piece of 9x12 inch mix media paper with gesso I had tinted with yellow acrylic paint. Then using mod-podge I glued down glitter tissue paper.

Using soft pastels I colored the tissue paper.

Next I covered the pastels with mod-podge. The mod-podge blends and seals the pastels and holds the tissue paper in place.

I painted another piece of mix media paper with gesso I tinted with blue acrylic.

Then I pressed the tissue paper painting onto the blue paint.

Then I pressed the tissue paper painting onto the blue paint. I wanted a little more contrast, so I painted some of the tissue paper orange with watercolor markers.

I tried again, this time I started with a green background and pressed the painting onto red and yellow paint.

On this piece I used several layers of different colors of pastels, than several layers of different colors of tinted gesso. The end result is pretty messy.

I cut circles out of the last painted tissue paper project to use on a box I made to hold paper for a new project.

I used the piece I cut the circles out of to go on the bottom of a box I made to hold my watercolor paper I cut up for zentangles.  The end result of the painted tissue paper was not exactly like the first time, but still very interesting. Because the layer of mod-podge you can paint on them with watercolor or any other medium. I shaded, shadowed and highlighted the pieces I glued to the boxes I made, and they look great. If you try this technique yourself, don’t be surprise if it does not look anything like the pieces I did. The fun part is it will always look unique, just have fun with it.