Sunday, May 29, 2011

IMPRINTING YOUR OWN PAPERS TO USE IN COLLAGE

Both these techniques are quite simple to do, and the results can be startling!

Technique #1: Soak good watercolor paper in clean water, place it on a hard surface, and apply plenty of vivid, strong liquid watercolors. Lay absorbent textured materials into it. Examples include crocheted fabric, swirls of string, or open-weave burlap. Add more full-strength paint as desired. Place a sheet of glass on top and let dry overnight. If necessary, add a book on top of the glass to weigh down your creative sandwich!







Technique #2: Buy cheap colored tissue (the non-colorfast kind!) in strong colors, tear pieces as desired, and arrange them on damp, smooth watercolor paper. Spray with more water as needed. Then cover with the sheet of glass as before and let dry overnight.


Experiment with both these methods and do try variations, too! Much luck to you.
(I'll publish your successful attempts at either of these here, with you credited, of course, if you wish to send me good quality images.)

Thursday, May 26, 2011

PASTELS OVER INDIA INK

Sketch loosely with a brush...in fact, use a rather large brush if you wish! Guaranteed to keep you from getting all nit-picky. Create a black and white drawing with the ink on any white paper you like. Then let it dry.
Use soft or hard pastels to accent the piece. Spray lightly with fixative when you're done, if you wish.





Sunday, May 22, 2011

GLUE, GOUACHE, AND SOFT PASTELS

I love to "draw" with glue--just regular Elmer's, usually--and let it dry. The figure below was then enhanced with gouache. For those who haven't used it, gouache is like opaque watercolor, also called designer's colors sometimes.  Finally, when the gouache was thoroughly dry,  I used soft pastels.






















Washable glue, the bluish kind that dries clear, is great for drawing on black paper.  It seems to make the paper look even more black when it dries! Here I added white gouache when the glue was dry, but gesso would work, too.

















The soft pastels really seem to pop against the black, don't they?


Friday, May 20, 2011

No scratchboard on hand? No problem!

Here's a way to make your own scratchboard from, um...scratch. Paint black acrylic all over sturdy, smooth paper and let dry. Then apply oil pastels heavily.













 Use a sharp, pointed tool to scratch in your design. 


Monday, May 16, 2011

OIL PASTELS ON ACETATE

1. Use a matte acetate sheet if possible. The one pictured here was more difficult to do because the oil pastels slipped and slid on the shiny acetate.


2. Make a sketch on white paper, and put it underneath the acetate. Paint highlights of oil pastels first, and all light areas, to keep them from getting muddy later on. Place strokes of color side by side as the Impressionists did. Gradually work in the middle tones and finally the darkest areas.

3. Don't worry if you can't cover every little bit of the acetate. Back the finished painting with foil for a special effect. Gold or silver art foil, even kitchen foil, works wonders as a background that peeks through in places. Place small dots of glue along the edges of the foil paper, and glue the painted surface to it. Now see your masterpiece! The gloss side (acetate only) is the side from which to view the painting. This would be a good art project for middle-school kids.