Pink in Watercolour and Textile Art

Watercolour Painting Lesson: Two Coloured Background Wash

At our Friday painting group, I gave this lesson last week. Here are some directions if you would like to try it:

• Wet the paper
• When the shine is starting to go off of the paper, start at the top and add a very rich strip of your chosen colour. Add successively lighter strips of colour until about a third of the way down the paper. Keep your board slightly tilted to allow the colour to run down.
• While the paper is still wet, turn your board 180 degrees and add a strip of another colour at the top. Continue as with the first colour. Allow the two colours to move close together in the middle of the paper.
• When you are satisfied with the blending, lay flat and allow to dry completely.
• Add a silhouette of your choice to the top of the background.  
• On this sample piece, I lifted out a few highlights in the water at the end.

For the year end review, I had a look back at some art work in watercolour and in textile for 2014. Here are some PINK samples.

 Some work from the first online art course I have taken. If you have ever thought of taking one of Jane Lafazio's courses, I would recommend it. http://janelafazio.com/online-classes/

Joan, added pieced squares to my hand painted hollyhock squares. I am still thrilled with this wall hanging.

 Click here for more information on painting with dyes on cotton fabric.

 For this watercolour technique I used pen and ink. It has a nostalgic look, don't you think? 

Fabric painting with a Gelli Plate.  Win was the instructor for this fun workshop I took this spring. Click here for several excellent mixed media tutorials http://windinnart.blogspot.com/

I had fun quilting on a 40 + year old Bernia sewing machine.

Over-painting a Mono Print with Watercolour

On Friday after being away from painting for a bit, I found the need to warm up so I pulled out a mono print from my stack of watercolour papers and started adding watercolour paint. The printing of the original botanical print, in brown, was printed using acrylic paint. That layer then stays adhered to the paper and watercolour paint can be added at will. Because the acrylic paint was thinned with mat medium and was in a thin layer, the second layer with the watercolour paint seemed to adhere on top of it well.

For information on making the botanical mono print below, click here .

Mono printing with a Gelli Plate onto hard press 90 lb watercolour paper using acrylic paint as the print medium. This is the mono print I used.

If you would like to see gelli plate monoprinting onto fabric, click here .

I enjoyed the mixed media play time using a mono print to paint on with watercolour. Again, the Gelli Plate mono prints was made with acrylic as the printing medium. Glazing medium thinned the acrylic paint.

The pros I found were:

• the first layer stayed put
• lots of texture could easily be achieved with the monoprint
• it was fun to negative paint around this texture and create new shapes

The cons I found were:

• the piece was rather dark and I had no way of lightening it up without adding additional mediums such as gauche or acrylic paint
• I had to work within the composition of the mono print

Here are sections of the over-painted mono print. I am in love with the texture on the leaves that were printed and the leaves that I created through negative painting. Little things like this can excite a painter well at least it does me.

The whole piece in its entirety. Note the glazing of cerulean blue across the top to suggest leaves in the background. There are likely lots of applications for this technique. What can you think up?

 

Mono Printing Backgrounds for Watercolour Painting

Preparing for 5 days of plein air painting, I thought I would mono print some backgrounds before leaving home. Sticking to neutrals as the watercolour paints will add the color, I monoprinted some leaves.

1. First I placed a thin layer of acrylic paint on the gelli plate surface using a brayer to even out the layer.
2. Secondly I laid down an arrangement of leaves. With the maple leaves I added some marks simulating branches.
3. Next I laid a piece of 90 lb Arches hot press paper and rubbed on the back to transfer the image.
4. If the shapes seemed to stark in contrast I removed the leaves and pressed them into the white shapes.
5. Then I laid another paper on the gelli plate to get the reverse print. Magic happened.

These may be to dark for the backgrounds I envisioned painting landscapes on but they are intriguing nonetheless and I am looking forward adding other media to complete them.



Mono printing with a gelli plate. Maple leaves.

A small section of the second pull of the maple leaves giving a 'ghost' print.

 In the dark area between the leaves, I pressed down lace in several places to remove some of the colour and to add texture. First print.

Second print

Same technique as the above but with burnt umber acrylic paint

 

Second print. This one has enough white space, I may be able to add a landscape in the background.

Textile. Do these prints call out to you, as much as me, to be printed onto fabric? I can't wait to try it. Over dye after? To many ideas to sleep well at night!!! For a post on gelli printing on fabric click here