Mixed media--the layered approach--Crayons, Watercolor, and Markers

Over the weekend I was experimenting with different media's--Lyra Triple one crayons, Daniel Smith Watercolors,  Faber-Castell Pitt Markers, and Schmincke gouache.

 

I discovered a few things using all three medians.  To start the drawing I used the Lyra triple one crayons to sketch in the sun flowers.  Next I used a damp wc brush to blend in the color of the sunflower.  While the sunflower part was drying, I worked on the green leaves and stems.  Once the Lyra crayons on the sunflower was dry, I noticed that yellows and oranges disappeared into each other and looked kind of flat.  So I used burnt umber gouache for the center of the sunflower and sepia for the seeds of the sunflower and that seemed to pop the center of the sunflower. With the flower part of the sunflower, I got out my Faber-castell markers using a light yellow and orange marker--that's when I discovered that while the FC marker was wet I could use a damp watercolor brush to blend in the color.  In the past, I have attempted to do that, but never seemed to work.  I think maybe laying the watercolor first before adding and blending the marker was the secret.

 

Moving onto the background I used the Lyra triple one crayons to lay in the background color.  I then went back in with a damp brush to blend the crayon color.  I then used my sepia, light blue, ultramarine blue, orange, and magenta markers. I kept on enhancing each color with more watercolor, followed by markers.

 

To finish, any part of the watercolor painting I though might need to bump up the color I used my Schmincke gouache.

 

Day 6 -- One Watercolor a Day-- Layered Landscape

Day 6 of One Watercolor a Day continues...

Layered Landscape

 

Today's assignment was to use a layered method with a limited palette.

 

With my watercolor I used Violet, French ultramarine blue, and Phthalo blue (RS). 

 

I started by dropping watercolor so they would spread into each other.  Once that was dry, I went back in and started to define the landscape.  After each layer was dried, I would go back in and add more color and start to make the blots of paint into shapes to form a landscape.  To finish the painting off, I used my Faber-castell Pitt markers in the same color of violet, fub, and phthalo blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 5 Butterfly

 

As I continue with One watercolor a day, Day 5 I used masking fluid to cover areas that I wanted to preserve the white.

 

Living in the high desert, masking fluid for me tends to get hard before I even had a chance to open and use the bottle.  I rarely use it, but I was surprised that the masking fluid I had bought this summer was still usable.  Anyway, it was a nice way to save the whites.

 

 

Day 4 Color Studies

 

Day 4  One watercolor a day continues with color studies.

 

Today's exercise was to do a simple still life, trying different color combinations.  I'm not big on still life paintings, but this is what I came up with.

 

 

 

Day 3 Red

Day 3 of  One watercolor a day.

 

Today's exercise was to paint a monochromatic painting of a dreamscape.  Mine was of a field of red poppies.

 

 

 

 

Puppy dog with Twinkling H20's

I've been organizing one of my studios and came across a box of Twinkling H20's pots of paint.  I was surprised at how many little pots I had of the Twinkling's.  Anyway, I decided to use them for this small painting of a puppy dog.  I'm not sure if you can see the simmering of the paint, but on my original it looks really nice.  Now that I've found them, I plan to incorporate them more in my watercolor paintings.

 

 

 

Day 2 -- Two Flowers -- One Watercolor A Day continues

Day 2 Two Flowers

Today's exercise is too paint two flowers--one wet-on-wet, and the other wet-on-dry.  On both flowers I used mix media watercolor paper.

 
 

 
Wet-on-wet--paper was wet first before I dropped in paint to form tulip.
 
 
 
 
Wet-on-dry--I applied watercolor to a dry surface. Added more detail as watercolor paper dried.

One watercolor a day by Veronica Lawlor

I recently got my copy of "One Watercolor A Day by Veronica Lawlor".   It's a 6 week course exploring creativity using watercolor, pattern, and design.  It's not a book teaching how to paint with watercolor, but different ways to apply color, pattern, and design...allowing the paints to just flow and use your imagination.

I thought I would work through the book.  Each day is a new topic.

Day 1 Let's Paint--just what the topic implies.  Putting down paint, using different colors and patterns.

I found it interesting to see how dropping and applying watercolor in different patterns played out.

The Neighborhood

 

Ocean Views

Vistas

 

I like how these small watercolors turned out and plan to pick one to develop into a larger painting.

Allowing myself to play

If anything I learned about myself last year was giving myself permission  to play while creating paintings...taking the time to explore and use a variety of mediums to create a piece of art. 

 

With this painting, it evolved over a few days.  First doing the line work and then slowly adding color with colored pencils.  Then going back in and adding watercolors, and finally finishing with markers.  I was up last night adding detail and by midnight I decided it was done.

 

 

 

 

Encaustic painting -- playing with wax

More experimenting with wax.  Today I created another encaustic painting using a gold wax square, colored pencils, and 2 different encaustic tips for my heat tool.  My subject was my baby Maddie.

 

Encaustic painting

For the last couple of days I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to work on this year.  Bookbinding is on the top of my list, but I can only make so many books for myself, so I had to think about what else I wanted to try working on. 

 

I've always have liked the organic feel of encaustic paintings.  Encaustic painting is the process of applying hot wax to the surface of a canvas or paper.   Last year I had bought a R & F encaustic start up set and put off using it, or I should say I was intimidated with working with hot wax. 

 

To work through my fear factor of the hot wax, I thought I'd start off small.  I made a drawing journal just for this purpose.  To explore and mess up paper without worrying about ruining good paper or canvas.

 

My first attempt was to draw Sophie with Crayola crayons. 

After drawing Sophie I got my heat gun and moved it over the drawing so the crayons would melt into the paper.  At first I didn't think anything happened, but upon feeling the surface, I could tell that the crayon had melted.  I really don't like all the noise that is generated by using the heat gun, so I did some research and thought I'd like a encaustic iron to apply the hot melted crayon.  After watching a couple of You tube demo's, I decided that the iron wasn't something I wanted to work with. 

 

Then today as I was walking around Joann's I came across Purple Cows Melt hot tool.  It was 50% off so I bought it to see what this small flat iron tip could do.  Here's a link:

 

http://shop.purplecows.net/c/sizzle-melt-accessories?pkey=153de62965c1051a404fbb6b7d1596fc&ckey=1037394.0.0.0.0

 

With the Melt hot tool I was able to apply the crayon to the flat iron and then move the flat iron over my drawing of Sophie.  It took a couple of applications to get the crayon spread over the drawing.  I know with a little practice I'll get the results I'm looking for, but for a first try--it's not too bad.

 

 

 

Sewing frame

I've been seeing sewing frames for bookbinding in  a lot of bookbinding books and on blogs of bookbinders.   I started to look around for one and the prices varied anywhere from $45 to $125 dollars.  Since my husband can just about build anything,  I had him look at a few online and he figured out the mechanics of the frame.  For $15 in material, plus his labor, he made me a very nice sewing frame.

 

To hold me over until my tape keys and more linen tape arrive, I used blue painters tape to hold the linen tape on top and bottom.

 

The drawing journal I made measures  7"L x 9"W.  I had 5 signatures with 4 sheets of drawing paper, giving me 80 pages to use. 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

Starting the new year with a small handmade 8 page journal.  I wanted to do something different with my journal page.  Using more doodles to fill in the surrounding space and of course my usual dog paintings.