Rockin' Mixed Media How-to #Watercolor #Strathmore #Sakura

Even though my Wednesday Watercolor class is over for this session, I wanted to go over the lessons one more time, so I decided to do another line and wash.  But I wanted to push the boundaries a bit, so I decided that I wouldn't just use a pigment pen to do the line, I'd use some gel ink pens - Sakura Gellyrolls to be specific.  I also used a red interference acrylic paint for my highlights, so that pushes this piece firmly into the mixed media arena.

For those interested, I've written a step-by-step with photos, below.


I started out with a base of watercolor paint, using the wet-into-wet technique.  I got the paper very wet and dropped one color at random, cleaned my brush, dropped another color at random and repeated this with different colors until the page was almost completely colored.

I didn't worry about which colors to use, where to drop them in, or what size or shape the drops were making.  (Note: when I say dropped, I'm referring to the technique that's called 'charging' in watercolor.  Depending on how watery your paint is, you may actually 'drop' paint onto the paper, or more likely, you may touch the tip of the brush to the paper and then quickly lift it, leaving just a touch of color).


After the paper dried thoroughly (you can ruin your Micron pen if you draw on wet paper), I began looking for rock shapes and drew them with the Micron..  In most cases, I looked for areas that were mostly one color, but didn't worry if a rock had more than one color.  Many 'edges' were fuzzy.  I just ignored those--for example, look above at the turquoise rock in the lower middle.  The edges ran profusely.  Now look below and you'll see I outlined that rock, leaving the 'fuzzies' on the outside of it.  As I added detail, the 'fuzzies' just disappear into the creases and crevices.


Continuing with the Micron pen, I began to add some shadowing, darkening rocks that I felt should be partially under other rocks, and adding some depth to each rock.  I tried to make it so some rocks seemed smooth, some rough, some rounded and others jagged.


Next I used two Gellyroll pens - a Classic Purple, and a Metallic Blue to add shadow. Many rocks are shiny and take on slightly different colors as you shift them in the light.  I felt the Gellyroll colors would emulate that.  In the photo below, you can see how the left half seems more defined than the right.  That's the effect of the light reflecting on the Gellyroll colors.


To add a little more definition overall, I went back with the Micron pen and darkened some areas, deepening the crevices.

The last step was to add highlights.  My white Gellyroll pen is out of ink, so I decided to use an acrylic interference paint that would change color and character with different light.  As with the shadow, I didn't worry too much about where I placed the highlights.  I felt that with a pile of stones like this, the rocks would be reflecting off each other and there wasn't much need to worry about the light source.

And that brings us back to the finished picture.




Comments

  1. Great step by step. It looks like a fun project! Thanks

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  2. Bam, you hit the nail on the head with this one. Going to bring out the good H2O paper for this one.

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  3. Gorgeous pebbles, thanks for sharing your step out Sandra :)

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  4. Thank you for sharing your process! May I ask how long you worked on this piece?

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    1. It's approx 7 x 11 inches in size. I worked on it for around 3 hours, but I was getting up and doing other things during that time as well, so I think the actual working time was closer to 1 1/2 hours. It looks like a lot more work than it was, because laying down the initial color and outlinig the rock only took about 15 minutes. The rest was just adding those shadows. That can get a little tedious, which is why I broke it up and just did a little of it at a time.

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  5. WOW!!! To go from all those bright blotches of color to those awesome rocks is amazing! You are a wonderful watercolor artist!

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  6. I really like this painting and the technique. Maybe this will be the next craze on the Zentangle sites. LOL Great work.

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  7. And I just learned about interference paint Friday night. I can't wait to try some.

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    1. Thank you! You could certainly do some interesting zentangle-inspired pieces with this method. I was thinking about doing that, myself. Interference paints are cool!

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  8. I look at your pictures as you post them and just think what wonderful art that you're blessed to do but today's for some reason just blew my mind. What time of love depicting each and every rock in a special way. Just had to tell you! WOWO

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    1. Thank you very much. This piece seems to have struck a chord for many. I think it's because it looks so detailed, but truthfully, it was easy to do!

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