This evening we are playing with all sorts of watersolubles for our Art Journal Session. I’ve raided my stash for media that we don’t use often in the sessions, with pencils, paints, crayons and gelatos on the menu. The session is all about experimentation and the different ways the water interacts with the pigments on the page. We’re adding some stamping and hand-drawn embellishments to adorn the page:
I used a scrap circle of MDF to trace round and drew a column down the middle of my page.
Next, do the corner leaving a similar margin to the vertical gap in between the circles down the middle.
Draw the next circle equally spaced between the edge and the middle circles. Complete the rest of the grid in the same way.
First up, Neocolor II watersoluble pastels. I drew around the edge of the circle and then used water and a brush to draw the colour into the centre.
The wax dissolves pretty well and the colours blend nicely with one another.
Watercolour paints are next – I used quite a strong mix first around the edges and then clean water to move it around before dropping more water into the wet mix to create some feathering.
I rarely use my Distress Crayons, so they got an outing. I scribbled a couple of colours in the centre, smudged them with my finger and then pulled the colour to the edges of the circle with water and a brush. They also feather with a little more water.
This was an experiment… I wetted the circle first before drawing on it with Stabilo Woody 3 in 1 pencils. I discovered that whilst they dissolve in water, they do not move after. I repeated the same colours drawing dry first and then wetting and achieved a much nicer result.
Distress watercolour pencils don’t always dissolve completely, but colours blend nicely. For a deeper shade, just draw with the pencils into wet areas and pull out with a brush.
Inktense paint pans behave like watercolours until they dry, so for blended colours (vs overlapping) work wet-into-wet.
One of my favourite watersoluble pencils… Inktense. These dissolve well. I made a bit of a booboo when choosing the colours and ended up with a magenta and green together. As complementary colours, they of course made mud as I pulled the colour into the centre of the circle.
And the other of my favourite watersoluble pencils… Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils. Working from the centre out, the pigments pull out well with no residue. Add a couple of drops into the wet areas to get feathering.
Gelatos aren’t often out in the Studio either. They do take a little work with water and a brush to activate, but then behave appropriately.
Complete the rest of the page, varying media and colours. Also, vary where the shading is within each circle. If you allow them to dry naturally, you will find the feathering much more pronounced compared to drying with a heat tool.
Add some stamped elements using permanent black ink (or other colour of choice). Avoid using a water-based ink which might move the media underneath.
Scribble some outlines around the circles using a black pigment fine liner. Be aware that the waxy media will catch and clog the nib, so try not to overlap the colour. Often, scribbling on a clean sheet of paper is enough to unblock the nib.
Add some mark-making with a metallic gold pen into each of the circles.
I didn’t like the stark white of the page between the circles, so finished the layout with a dilute wash of metallic gold Inktense paint.