Pastels and Watercolors (and a few other art media)

[terri]

Abstract is hard, I agree. My brain really wants to move in a representative way and forcing it to do otherwise causes inner fighting between left and right sides.

But it can be gorgeous when well done, so I'll be playing over the weekend, too. Maybe just start with shapes or something.

 

[terri]

Fun with new gel plate. Looked at a Golden 2-3 minute video about using Golden Open acrylics, which have additives to make them slower to dry, and I wondered if they were ok with the plates. Of course they are! Which means you have a few extra minutes to mess around with stencils, stamps and the like, before worries about the paint drying on the plate. (It will come off, just ruins what you've prepared at that session.)

This is the first "pull," just using Canson XL mixed media paper:

There's a near-undetectable "ghost" imprint that can be pulled with fresh paper, so I had one ready. As you can see, the stencil pattern is identical but the colors are much softer since the bulk of the paint was removed from the first pull off.

I only used the primaries: started with yellow, then red, then blue. As you can see, I have only small square stencils. It would be fun to have 8x10" to cover the plate. But for now, in learning/playtime, I'm using what I already have.

Apparently these gel plates need to be worked several times to get them broken in, or the invisible top layer of factory coating pulled off. I had to use a couple of different brayers to spread the paint, because it was smearing at first. It's now stopped so I have a little more confidence that I won't screw up the new plate.

 

[SquarePeg]

Fun with new gel plate. Looked at a Golden 2-3 minute video about using Golden Open acrylics, which have additives to make them slower to dry, and I wondered if they were ok with the plates. Of course they are! Which means you have a few extra minutes to mess around with stencils, stamps and the like, before worries about the paint drying on the plate. (It will come off, just ruins what you've prepared at that session.)

This is the first "pull," just using Canson XL mixed media paper:

View attachment 279780



There's a near-undetectable "ghost" imprint that can be pulled with fresh paper, so I had one ready. As you can see, the stencil pattern is identical but the colors are much softer since the bulk of the paint was removed from the first pull off.

View attachment 279781


I only used the primaries: started with yellow, then red, then blue. As you can see, I have only small square stencils. It would be fun to have 8x10" to cover the plate. But for now, in learning/playtime, I'm using what I already have.

Apparently these gel plates need to be worked several times to get them broken in, or the invisible top layer of factory coating pulled off. I had to use a couple of different brayers to spread the paint, because it was smearing at first. It's now stopped so I have a little more confidence that I won't screw up the new plate.

This is a very cool addition to your bag my friend! I love the creativity you bring to things like this.

 

[SquarePeg]

Abstract is hard, I agree. My brain really wants to move in a representative way and forcing it to do otherwise causes inner fighting between left and right sides.

But it can be gorgeous when well done, so I'll be playing over the weekend, too. Maybe just start with shapes or something.

Abstract is impossible! Even when I set out to create an abstract, I still end up with what looks like flowers. Is it just me? Do I have flowers on the brain? This looks like flowers to me and that was not my plan. I was trying to practice the wispy edges that you can get with alcohol inks but I have not been able to get there. I think my hair dryer that I’m using to move the inks around is too strong. I’ve ordered a new one - the cheapest one I could find that had a bunch of reviews that it’s not powerful enough to dry their hair lol - we will soon see if the problem is my equipment or if I just need more practice.

Here’s my abstract / more flowers.

This is just one color ink - pitch black and some metallic fixative in gold on a 8x8 ceramic tile. Even though it wasn’t supposed to resemble flowers- I really like the end result. This might be the first thing that I’ve painted myself, not from a tutorial, that I would consider hanging in my house.

 

[terri]

Applause! This is beautiful! I don't care if it's supposed to be flowers or just a concept of flowers. You achieved a lot of subtle color here for just using a black and a gold fixative.

Take a look at Georgia O'Keeffe's florals. They're flowers, but oftentimes referred to as abstracts, with her huge flowing lines. She was clearly very comfortable moving in and out of representational art. Don't sweat it, just do your thing.

About the hair dryer. Do you have one of those wide, shallow, round diffuser attachments? Not much air comes from them. Might be something to try.

 

[SquarePeg]

Applause! This is beautiful! I don't care if it's supposed to be flowers or just a concept of flowers. You achieved a lot of subtle color here for just using a black and a gold fixative.

Take a look at Georgia O'Keeffe's florals. They're flowers, but oftentimes referred to as abstracts, with her huge flowing lines. She was clearly very comfortable moving in and out of representational art. Don't sweat it, just do your thing.

About the hair dryer. Do you have one of those wide, shallow, round diffuser attachments? Not much air comes from them. Might be something to try.

It’s one of the ones that is like a wand and has a round brush on the end. I just removed the brush.