New Liquitex Paint Markers

Who says kids have all the fun at Christmas time? I was gifted some Liquitex Paint Markers and along with my Montana ones, I was set to have some fun! For those who aren't aware, these markers are acrylic based so they go swell with any type of acrylic or mixed media type of artwork. Most can be refilled as well and Montana carries the empty ones so we can mix our own colors as well, which is even more golden. 

I first chose to test out my markers in my mixed media art journal and worked o a page using Golden heavy body acrylics with my Liquitex markers. I LOVED the way they gave me control over the details, had great opaque coverage, and flowed smoothly. They didn't blend as well as I had hoped but they did offer the ability to cover in layers which turned out to be a nice way to use them. Because I have chisel tips, writing was easy and I could see they would lend themselves to lots of journaling, which is something we all love. To view all of the entries in this journal click HERE

Once I knew they would work well in my journal I wanted to see how they performed on watercolor paper. I opted for 300lb. rough, and right from the get go they were a bit sluggish. My graphite and crayons went down first, but the flow that I found on the slick paper just wasn't there on the rough surface and the paper seemed to soak the paint up too quickly at first. Once I had an initial layer of acrylic on the paper though, they performed quite well and were a joy to work with in adding details out the gazooba! 

This was the first test using the 300lb. watercolor paper. I just sketched, made marks, and played with color. You can see the texture pretty well, and the paint seemed to just not move well in this. I opted to turn the painting upside down and take it in a different direction this morning. 

First layers using Golden Heavy Body Acrylics

Next layers, adding details with the markers. 

"Practice Time" 9" by12" acrylic on paper

Final version, added some warm glazes and balanced out the details. Overall, the control the markers gave me are something my style works well with, that makes my day! 

There are applications I plan to tinker with using the markers, but for now, I am pleased as punch with how they work. I hope your Christmas and holiday was blessed friends. Looking forward to some huge changes in the new year as well! 

Art Journal Page - Testing Tools

Juliana Coles, art journal and teacher extraordinaire, teaches an online class called "Field Notes" and I am loving it!One of our exercises was to test out our sketch/journaling tools that we would carry around with us and use, so I dove right in making marks, making notes, and trying out some new combinations. 

Because I am using my newest altered book as one of my journals for this class, I opted for two pages that had pretty basic images of African masks, and then coated both with white and phtalo blue Golden fluid acrylics. I wanted a base of acrylic because I knew I would primarily be writing, drawing, painting over acrylic on most pages. 

After all was said and done, I learned a bit of unexpected insight in to the materials I thought I would love the most, but didn't. My Copics, Micron, and Uniball Vision Needle were great, waterproof, smooth lines, just loved them for pens. My Molotow white paint pen worked the best, but I was also surprised to find the Elmer's Painters Pens (found at Walmart no less) way better than I expected, for half the price and tons of colors. Graphite was a huge disappointment for me, but most likely due to the acrylic paint. I HATE F and H graphite, they are just too hard for me, but I love the B's, especially the 6B and 8B. What that tells me is that I am drawn to dark lines and really love lines that will blend at times. 

I also just got three water soluble graphite sticks in 2,4, and 6B, and when wet the create a wonderful flow of black pigment....totally yummy. My Pentel Gold and Silver pens wrote smoothly, and even a Bic pen didn't disappoint either. My Neocolor II sticks were the best 'crayon' like product, went on creamy, but when wet they took a while to dry and were very runny, so I know they will be better suited for paper, but as a crayon, they were great. Derwent Inktense were about the same, loved the crayon like feel when dry, but when wet they were almost too runny and require a matte medium to coat them or they will lift easily. 

I glued a flap onto the left of this page so that I could write my impression of each tool. 

The most unexpected product I loved was my Crayola marker (to the right of the larger figures face three orange horizontal lines). Went on smoothly, totally transparent, and next to my ChartPak markers which were way more expensive, they worked just as well. Glad to make that comparison. Overall, I know I will use most of these tools in my sketchbook, but I wont be using my F or H pencils anytime soon. 

Tomorrow I shall try a few products on a dry page, no acrylic, and compare and contrast the difference. If you are looking for an online art journal class that pushes you toward creating edgy, messy, fantastic life sketches I strongly recommend her classes. I am just in week two and have about 10 videos left to watch, amazing PDF's, and the fact that she, as the instructor is so involved in our class makes thrilled. I have taken many online classes, some really expensive ones from well known instructors, only to be really disappointed at the 'lack' of personal presence from them. Juliana makes herself part of the class, and I value that in a teacher. 

Looking forward to what the next lessons bring.....on to make marks. 

Watercolor Travel Palette

Watercolors can be really expensive, especially if you use professional grade paints such as Holbein, Daniel Smith, or Windsor Newton. I have palettes at home because I use tube paints and had previously used a Van Gogh travel palette with pans which I had for eons and loved, but I really missed my favorite paints which I had at home. I had priced out travel palettes and to purchase them ready made was way too costly, so I started searching for travel kits I could fill with tube paints and even those were costly. Along comes my stroll through the sewing aisle at a local craft store and low and behold I spied a bobbin thread holder with 25 sections, just deep enough for tube paints for $5. Because I plan to travel and sketch with these a lot I will allow them to dry out a bit but I am really stoked to start using a much more varied palette in my sketchbook! 

HandMade Watercolor Art Journal and the Perfect View

Somewhere between the dream of a perfect studio and the frustration of not exactly having one right about now gave me some new insight today in just how good I have it. Yep, there are artists who paint in about 4 square feet, some only have a milk crate with supplies, and some simply have to paint outside with their belongings in a bag....but they do it, and they do it well. Then there are those who have million dollar studios and ones where every wall, nook, and cranny matches as if a fashion designer whipped it out. Then...there is me, somewhere in between all of that my kitchen table has become my Nirvana. 

As I sat editing some work for a bit the sunlight began to peer in ever so gently and it illuminated my paints as if it wanted to try its own hand at a masterpiece. Over to my left, the sun ray caught a glass diamond which sits in testament to the magnificent iridescent moth perched in perfect form inside a glass case. The wall of windows showcases the myriad hues of green and the occasional Bluebird flits by, always followed by the Mockingbird in haste.  In essence, I have a gorgeous 'spot' to create in and I am blessed beyond measure. Cleaning it up each day is simply a no brainer, so I won't whine. This was the second part of the lesson I was to learn today. It wasn't about moaning over what I wish or don't have, it was claiming the POTENTIAL of the day and being content in this very moment. 

Days like this are important for me. They make me pause, look at where I am and realize, I could have it no better and I say a prayer of gratitude to the big guy upstairs for giving me a life I don't deserve. My art journal page was a celebration of the word POTENTIAL today. I spent some time enjoying knowing that I am surrounded by it, every day. The potential to create, to breathe, to love, to wonder, to discover, to give, to share, to experience....all of these make for viewing this day in a perfect light. 


Yesterday I joined Tamara Laporte's Lifebook Online Mixed Media Class! It is a year long celebration of all things mixed media and since I am joining a few months late I knew I would have a lot of catching up to do. I also knew the perfect journal I would use, an over sized Handmade watercolor journal. 


I use a small one of these for my weekly journal, but for this project, and those to come, I wanted a larger canvas to work with and this book is about as yummy to me as butter is to Paula Deen. It's an 11" by 15" book of pure POTENTIAL and I can't wait to begin filling that baby up. 

(You can get this at Hobby Lobby. It runs $30 but if you use the coupon you can get it for 40% off, and for a huge handmade watercolor journal, you can't beat that price. This paper is also extremely porous, so if you plan to use it just for watercolor, you might want to coat the pages with gesso or ground first. If you are a sketcher/doodler/drawer, then it is perfect.)


  

Tomorrow I will be down at Art(ology) and am tinkering with the idea of hosting a public Google+ hangout for a painting demonstration. That has tons of POTENTIAL as well. I do hope your evening is blessed, that you were able to create in some capacity, or at least dream of it. Peace friends! 

Product Review Yasutomo Pearlescent Watercolors Part 1

As I was meandering down the aisle at my local art store hunting watercolor crayons, which they had not, I came across these new watercolors and their shimmer, and price, caught my eye. I do love to add a bit of bling to my art journal, so these little lovelies called out to me, especially at the price of $6.95 along with a 40% coupon. 


Before I start, let me say that for my fine art watercolor pieces I always use Daniel Smith or Holbein, but for my art journal, I feel pretty much free to try any medium and brand, just to test it out. I will walk you through my thoughts about this paint, and hope that if you choose to try it out too, you might share your point of view here. 


I first started out by creating a color grid in my journal of each pigment. Right away I realized two things: 1. I had forgotten to gesso my 'really porous' paper and 2. They were pale. As each square was formed and the water was absorbed though, the shimmer aspect of these paints began to appear and they were really lovely. 

Next, I tried mixing a few colors to see how they reacted on the paper. What I found was they really kept both pigments but seemed to set one on top of the other in a transparent layer. This effect could have great potential depending on how it was used. 

You can really see the shimmer in this view. If you open this up in Paint, it will give you the perfect view. 

Here is a close up of the 21 color palette. 

Next, I decided to create a journal page with them, just to see how they actually performed in a painting. Because my paper was so porous, sigh, they didn't blend at all like I had hoped and I found myself wishing they were a bit more opaque for skin tones, etc. Once again, as the paper dried, their beauty appeared. Because they are so translucent and pale, they wouldn't be my first choice for an intense color palette. What these paints were made for though, is adding a shimmer layer on top of bolder colors. In fact, when added to black, their pearlescent/interference qualities are simply stunning. 

I was not crazy about them when I first began to use these, but the paper was an issue too. 

As they dried, I could see their potential, but I missed the bold color.

I could have been ok with this, but I chose to add a few more washes of regular watercolors instead.

"Decapitate the Annoying?" 

I will continue to test these but use different papers tomorrow, along with mixing them with regular watercolors and acrylic glazes. Seeing how they move and react with glazes is something I am eager to find out. 

For the price and convenience, they are a GREAT value, especially for the art journals and mixed media pieces that lend themselves to a little bling. My journal page today was a lesson on letting go of what annoys me, which seems to be a lot lately. Knowing I need to stop, breathe through the moment, and chill makes it so much easier to accept things I may dislike....short of decapitating something or someone, :)