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.