#I think I need to start to add a few additional layers of watercolor before the pen

[affixjoy]

[mysticsparklewings]

Holiday Card Project 2019

Oh would you look at that; I’m participating in the deviantArt Holiday Card Project again this year! Just like last year, my crafty efforts aren’t really done proper justice by scans or photos, so I’ll be uploading a short video...somewhere (probably Instagram but we’ll see) and then link back to it to hopefully show it off a bit more.   It’s funny though, I’d almost forgotten about HCP until I got the notification that it had opened for this year. And yet I was so concerned about having it in the mail on time that I got this one done pretty much in one day. I think last year's card took me closer to 2 days and I was pushing my luck that it would get there in time.   My process for this year went as follows: I browsed around on Pinterest for a while, as I hadn’t the foggiest idea what to do. During that process, I latched onto a concept I saw a few times; Christmas lights and the phrase “merry and bright,” and so I went with that. Already I had the idea of the lights being across the top of the card, with a real piece of thread (which would later be changed to wire as the idea occurred to me while I was digging for some other supplies) connecting them. After some thought, I decided I wanted to add some cotton to the bottom to add a little more pizzazz. Because if last year’s HCP taught me anything, it’s that I like to go big or go home for the occasion. And I knew where I could get some too; the fields next to the house have already been picked for this year, but there was still a good amount of cotton leftover on the stalks near the edges. Let me tell you, I have a newfound appreciation for whoever invented a mechanical way to take the seeds out of cotton, because gosh darn it if that process is not far more tiresome than you’d think! I think I finally did manage to get them all out, but now I know why it’s probably just easier to buy cotton or polyester fiberfill. XD Anyway. With my mind made up and a handle full of cotton at the ready, I started on the actual card part. In the past, for my card needs I’ve usually used some of the pre-folded & cut cards my mom has on hand, but this time I didn’t feel like bothering her about it. So instead I grabbed a piece of my gold-shimmer cardstock and cut it down so that once I folded it I’d have a 5” x 7” card. (As that’s what Google told me was a fairly common size for greeting cards and would fit comfortably in most standard envelopes.) Then I used my trick from my book-making endeavors of using the edge of scissors to “score” the folding line on one side of the card to make that process easier. In trying to make some stamps I didn’t end up using magically appear from whoever they were hiding, I found some metallic gold stripey paper in my stash and had the idea to cover the outside of the card with it, maybe. At the time I was a little bit skeptical if I wanted to do that, but I pulled it out and set it on the desk anyway so I could have the option if I wanted it. And as you can see, I ended up deciding to go for it, though at this point in the process I simply measured out and cut it as needed; I wouldn’t attach it until later. Then I paused and used the scrap cardstock pieces to test some pens and such, only to find I was only minimally (at best) interested in using any of them. I had some ideas to incorporate certain things but they were things I couldn’t really try out until I had more of the card finished, and some things I couldn’t figure out solutions for until then either. So I swatched out some marker colors and started practicing on some print outs of the Christmas light shape—which is fortunately had the foresight to do the said printing out before I got into the thick of everything else—only to find that I just really was not happy with the blends I was getting.  I think the main problem is that I just didn’t have certain colors I needed, but the glowing/fade effect I was trying to get was also totally new territory for me and I seemed to only get worse the more times I tried it.   In the end, I picked out a “base” shade for each Christmas light color from the markers and then selected a dark, a “true color” and a highlight from my Prismacolor pencils to do the shading instead. There were still challenges to be had, but this system worked a lot better for me. Benefits of being a mixed media artist: if one medium just isn’t doing it for you, you can bring in others to level the playing field   The lights then got bright shine spots courtesy of my white Gelly roll pen and their little silver bits I did with a silver Art Philosophy watercolor. Even though I was already anticipating the silver getting kind of lost against the gold in the background. I had a vision and I was sticking to it. In addition to that vision, once the lights were safe to handle I glued them to a piece of foam and then left them alone to dry, figuring it would be easier and simpler to cut them out if I only had to do it once. As such, the edges aren’t super smooth, but otherwise, I think that was the right call. While they dried, I then attached the gold-stripe paper to the card surface and started thinking about where and how I would implement the text parts of the card. (And at some point I took a break to figure out the full inside and outside please, as originally all I was going on was “merry and bright,” though I don’t remember when exactly in the process that was.) Here, I had the idea that black paper might look cool. The only black paper I have is a pad of Crayola stuff that I think is actually for practicing calligraphy or hand lettering or something? My original plan was to take one of the pages out and use the blank back, but as I filled through I saw some of the cut out frame-y things and took a look to see if any of them would work for what I wanted/needed, and you can see the two I picked out. Though the one on the inside of the card had only the black and gray/silver originally; the colors I added by hand with my gel pens since it felt like it really needed it. The black paper on the inside also needed a little more attention than the one on the outside. I didn’t cut either of them perfectly straight, but there were a lot more distracting elements that were going to be on the outside, so it was far less noticeable there. On the inside, I ended up going around the edge with some gold and white washi tape that when well with the outside of the card to camouflage the uneven edges. By the time I had all the various papers properly attached to each other and the top edge inside of the card decorated with a strip of glitter tape and a repeating stamp of Christmas lights to tie in with the outside, I felt the lights were dry enough to cut out, so I did. And that meant that the /real/ card assembly could begin. I punched little holes in the tops of the lights for the wire I’d add in later and then fiddled with their placement for a bit before gluing them down...which I then I had to wait for about twenty minutes before I could proceed if I wanted things to dry mostly flat.   So while that took its sweet time to dry I went back to the Crayola black paper pad to one of the pages with a grid on it to practice writing out the words for both the outside and inside of the card. In doing so, I discovered that the uni-ball Signo white pen, while bolder and brighter than the Gelly roll, made my cursive almost illegible by virtue of having a thicker tip. Which is why I went with the Gelly roll instead. Just printed handwriting didn’t feel right; I really wanted the fancier look of the cursive. However, I also wanted whoever gets the card to actually be able to read it too. Eventually, the lights, while not fully dry, were dry enough that I could comfortably move on with the assembly. And hindsight, perhaps I should’ve tried stringing the lights onto the wire before gluing them down. The main issue I had was that once I got the wire poked through the hole, it’d bump into the card on the other side and then not want to go anywhere at all. I had to play with it each time to get the wire to come all the way through so I could pull it to the next one. Or maybe that would’ve made the gluing process more difficult than it was worth? We’ll never know. And then I got to attach the cotton. That actually ended up being a much smoother process than I anticipated, as the cotton doesn’t really separate from itself unless you pull it apart, so once I had parts of a clump glued down they were pretty stationary. This was also the first time I dared use my crafting heat gun since I purchased it (which was a while ago; after reading the warnings the first time I’ve been too chicken to use it for fear of catching something on fire by accident ) as I originally thought I’d need more glue and I’d need to glue some clumps on, dry them, and then glue some more. Fortunately, I seemingly put my big girl panties on for nothing as, after the initial layer of glue, I really only needed to glue a couple of other clumps down separately, and as I mentioned the cotton stick to the wet glue well enough on its own. But I had psyched myself up and gotten the thing set up, so once all the cotton was glued down I used the heat gun to dry the glue faster anyway. I was amped up the whole time but I, fortunately, did not burn anything in the process!   I did end up going back and adding some blue gel pen to the black paper on the inside, as that was the only color not there and it felt sorely lacking, giving the lights elsewhere on the card. But other than that, once the cotton was all squared away, the card was done. And I’ll be honest; I still like the card I made last year, but I think I’ve really outdone myself this time. There’s just something about the style of this card I enjoy so much more. 

It’s equally over-the-top (as is my crafting specialty ) but it’s more refined, somehow, I think. Either way, all that’s left to do now is mail it off and hope that the recipient is as pleased with the card as I am. I can’t believe I’ve actually finished with it this early though!  That’s so unlike me; I’m usually the one sneaking things in right on top of the deadline. But hey that means now I have one less thing on my to-do list so I can focus on other things...which may or may not include a holiday-themed kitty drawing in the works... ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[cammiluna]

Cammi’s Blog Series on Watercolor #1

Due to several requests from many of my twitter mutuals, I’m going to talk about watercolor for a few posts.

This is everything based on my own experiences and my suggestions or methods are in no way “the right way to watercolor.” There’s pros on youtube that can teach you how to watercolor like a champ.

I just draw silly characters!

in THIS post, I will list my suggestions on watercolor supplies to purchase for getting started. Later posts during the week/month of February, I will go into defails on specific kinds of paints, paper, brushes, palettes, and then some.  A table of Contents will be added to this original post as more posts are added to this series.

All price estimates are in US dollars

1: My Personal Favorite:

Daniel Smith Essentials Set of 6 ($30 on Amazon)

Daniel Smith Primatek Introductory Set of 6 ($25-30 on Amazon) 

Meeden Empty Watercolor tin with 12 half pans ($11 on Amazon)

Interestingly enough, now Daniel Smith has a 15-color pan set for about the same price as this setup, and it has all the essential colors except for New Gamboge, but it doesn’’t include any of the gorgeous Primatek colors, and the lid isn’t made for mixing color (the water spills onto your lap) so you’ll have to buy an additional palette anyway. Still, iif the colors in that set are up your alley, go for it! 

Daniel Smith has been my dominant paint choice for almost a year now; getting them last February and taking a few months to get used to them after using cotmans for two years and artist loft for the 10 years prior. I didn’t think artist grade paint would be worthwhile for the likes of ME because I just draw character doodles and not landscapes or textures that rely on high-pigment paint to really shine, but I was wrong.  The colors lay down so much better and you use less paint per drawing because of the high pigment load. I’ve painted a lot more in 2008 than I have in previous years and none of my tubes are close to running out!  The Plague Knight and Mona drawing posted above was done with artist grade paint.

I’ve expanded since then, buying another tube of Daniel Smith when I was able to go to Blick with a small wad of cash, or get a Winsor & Newton Artist grade tube for $5 with a Michaels coupon.I also repurposed my Cotman box for my current paint set. I can’t remember how much this whole palette is worth together, but the initial 12-color+metal case setup was about $70 (the primateks gifted to me), and then I added a new color every several weeks or when I felt like I really needed something else.

2: The Simple Budget Grab-n-Go

You are very new to watercolor, not sure if you are willing to commit, or you’re just plain not in a situation where you can be spendy.

Maybe you’ve used those $5 watercolor cake sets and you’re tired of the chalky powder rubbing onto adjacent pages when the paintings dry in your nice Moleskine book

Winsor & Newton Cotman: Sketchers Pocket Box. These days, you can get it for around $13 on Amazon.

There are LOTS of different cotman sets, but this one has two kinds of reds, two blues, two yellows, two greens, and 3 neutrals, which, if you’re a beginner, is a great way to learn about color mixing. It also has some of the most popularly-used colors in the world of paint, such as burnt sienna, french ultramarine, cadmium yellow [hue], alizarin crimson, sap green, and the pthalos, so you can develop familiarity with these and easily find tips and tricks on using them online. Any color you don’t like later on can get tossed in the garbage and replaced with another color (I’ve replaced black with Paynes Grey, white with Cerulean Blue Hue, and Burnt Umber with Van Dyke Brown).

You can make all sorts of colors with this, and you won’t get overwhelmed with having too many colors to glance over.

Refills and additional colors are available for $5+ each

It comes with a small brush. You may not like it. 

Cotman Brush Pen Set, $17 on Amazon.

I’m not a fan of color setup except for the inclusion of Paynes Grey, Turquoise, and a really nice purple, but I LOVE this box!  It comes with more mixing space on the lid and a waterbrush that I think works really well. It’s a very thin tipped brush, so if you want something to more easily paint over larger areas, I suggest getting a medium size waterbrush listed below.

If you don’t like waterbrushes, a foldable pocket paintbrush can fit in the slot just fine.I’ll have a separate post on paintbrush details.

---

The main issue with cotmans is that they carry less pigment than more expensive pants as these are student grade. Many of the colors are still vivid and wonderful, and you’ll just have to layer some colors a few times to get some really bold color application on the paper. Many people use cotmans just fine.

avoid Van Dyke Brown at all costs. Look at this Banjo!

3: More Colors for your Buck!

You don’t care about mixing or portability, You love color. you want to explore all that’s available in paint or want to build a collection that’s as big as your copics.

You have options, my friend!

Kuretake Gansai Tambi, $30 on Amazon, $40 on JetPens. I do not recommend these if you like to mix colors or complex layering because these don’t handle that well. I’ve tried layering color on commissions and it would just lift the bottom later of paint after it dried a week prior, and this nearly destroyed two commissions. HOWEVER, if your watercolor style is simple shading, bold, flat colors, using the white of the paper for highlights, this set will be a terrific friend of yours. The pinks, greens, and blues are absolutely fantastic and I use it for my Superstar Saga art whenever I’m home. 

The paint is really opague unless you water it down a ton. It’s still going to look great regardless.

Smaller sets of this are availablle, but since mixing more than two colors at a time doesn’t work out very well, you might as well go with the largest set.

There’s also the option of larger cotman sets with a half pan set of up to 45 colors for $55 on Amazon.

Paintbrushes

For this post, I’m going to briefly list some travel brushes. a more detailed post about bushes will come in the near future.

The main points are:

You would want a water brush if you like to paint with water in the brush, or paint on the go with no real opportunities to put a water cup down anywhere.

You would want a synthetic paintbrush if the stiffness works with your painting style and you want the brush to hold more pigment than water You can get these in assorted price ranges, but the super cheap ones  will wear down and need frequent replacement.

You go for a natural hair paintbrush if you want to make really long paint strokes or paint large areas without having to re-add paint and water to the brush so frequently.  Most of these are pretty expensive.

Anyone may tell you “natural hair brushes are the best brushes” but this is completely up to preference and painting habits Any small brush over $10 will last you a long time if you take care of it. Unless maybe it’s from Artist’s Loft.

A good size main brush (particularly if you do A5-sized paintings like me) is a 6 round. if you could only afford one brush, make it this one. This would be your go-to brush that can do thick fills, tight corners and thin lines as you need. Other size and shape brushes can be added to your set as you feel you need or could afford them later on.

Pentel Aquash waterbrush: $10 on Amazon. You simply fill the barrel with water, and the brush will drip water from the bristles and let you paint without needing to dip the brush into a jar of water. You won’t need a jar of water at all!  Some people love the convenience, some people hate how out-of-control the water flow gets.

I recommend the medium for a main brush. If you need a finer point for details, you could get one as a secondary brush, but if you feel you don’t need it, then just the medium is fine.

I just started using the Pentel brand a couple of months ago and can’t give judgement on them yet. Other brands I’ve tried before needed replacing at least twice a year with regular use.

I love travel brushes because I like the bristles to be protected when I take them places.  Normal handle bushes can be cheaper or longer.  Personally, I don’t look for brand names when picking brushes, I look for the material of the hair.

Both Escoda and DaVinci make great Red Sable brushes, and they have been my mains for two years. Expensive as they were, they are still working great and have perfect sharp points 18 months later. Not to mention, I’ve made the money back through watercolor commissions, in which these brushes allowed me to complete more commissions in less time.

White Taklon has worked well for me for synthetic brushes. Princeton has been my regular brand in late 2008 since I was able to snag those at Michaels in the mixed media brush section.

---

That’s it for now! Next post I’ll cover watercolor paper.

[broadwaybydesign]

I Got Rhythm: Costuming “An American In Paris,” Part I

Hello, dear readers, and welcome back to Broadway by Design! After taking a look at some unorthodox costumes in my Tanz der Vampire/Le Bal des Vampires, I’m shifting gears back towards traditional Broadway, this time with a still-Parisian twist. By request from an Anon (and with encouragement from my dear friend @annbradleys ), I’m moving up my review of Bob Crowley’s couture-inspired designs from An American in Paris, and I can’t wait to get started!

For those not familiar with this production, it takes its lead from the 1951 movie of the same name. Stunningly for an Oscar-winning production in this era, the costumes for the movie were not Edith Head, but were a team effort by Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett, and Irene Sharaff. For the stage production, Bob Crowley definitely took some inspiration from the original movie, but moved in a new direction that was inspired by the high fashion (couture) of post-war France, which means his costumes are elegant, simple, and visually appealing. Let’s dive in, this time with images courtesy of Vanity Fair, which spent quite a bit of time promoting the production:

I’m starting with a group shot for a reason: it gives us an idea of where the costumes start before we begin to look at some of the more unique designs that were given to individual actors and ensemble members. The production is set in post-war Paris, so it makes sense that (especially on the female members of the cast) the costumes are somewhat demure. The style on the women’s dresses are similar, but with an air of refinement in each of them. I like how, despite similar fabrics and patterns, the cut on the green and red-orange dresses on the righthand side are quite different, with the latter sporting a doubled look and the one on the right looking a bit more timeless and classical. The dress in the center and on the left both share that timelessness, but in shades of color that are simply ravishing. I’m not as much of an expert on male costuming, but the mens’ suits are visually appealing and fit the era (late 1940s) extremely well. It’s difficult to get a suit wrong but believe it or not, I have seen it done.

The same Vanity Fair coverage gave us insight into Bob Crowley’s design processes for well, especially for the more elaborate costumes. Below, I’ve included a couple of his design sketches so I can comment a little on that process before proceeding to look at some of the more visually appealing dresses that appear in this production:

(Caption: Galeries Lafayette - Customers/Ladies who lunch)

(Caption: Milo Davenport | Ritz | Chaldet AAIP Ballet, with side notation indicating there is a fur wrap)

Color sketches are how a costume designer first lays out his or her vision for the wardrobe department. A designer, while intimately involved in every aspect of producing a costume, is not a single force and works with an extensive team in the costume shop of the theatre. This includes any number of tailors and seamstresses who will do the actual work of assembling the outfits to the people who add jewel or beadwork, all to the designer’s exacting specifications. But these sketches, often done in pencil and watercolor for intensity of color, are where it all begins. Notice how not every detail is outlined at this early stage; even if these are what the public envisions when they think of designer sketches, they aren’t the finished product. This, however, is how the work gets started and it can take an enormous amount of back-and-forth consultation between the costume designer, the costume shop, the set designer (can’t have color clashes or competition for the audience’s attention!), and even the actor or actress who will wear the finished product. The idea is to give a rough expectation of the finished product while allowing the flexibility to make changes for later. It’s the same process used by fashion designers making regular clothing or runway dresses, but with a different set of people consulted at each step.

Bob Crowley’s designs, as the sketches show, reflect a classic look, something a bit more sophisticated than many of the dresses I have reviewed recently. That’s intentional given the time setting of An American in Paris; as I noted in my reviews of War Paint, the post-war era is where couture really started to come into its own. The designs reflect that while making sense in the context of the musical. There’s a tremendous use of color in the sketches, and that later gets transformed into some beautiful costume designs for the Milo character in particular. With thanks to BroadwayBox, I want to look at a few outfits Milo wears in particular:

I started with this outfit for Milo (as played ably by Jill Paice) because, lo and behold, it matches one of Bob Crowley’s design sketches above! What was once simply pencil and watercolor has now become a far more complex and complete costume from head to toe. We can see that he kept the same red for the dress as in the sketch, as well as the bow-like adornment that lies on the character’s waist. The coat has changed dramatically (remember what I said about sketches changing often?) and is now a black-and-red checked pattern rather than white-and-red, which I think makes it seem much more dramatic. The fabrics are rich and hang well, and there is simple accenting in the form of black suede gloves (according to Ms Paice herself), wide-brimmed hat that accentuates her blonde hair, and a relatively simple gold chain. It’s a visually impressive piece, and I love the way it just looks classical!

Second, we have this green, silky number that goes down to Ms Paice’s ankle. For the most part, it’s a simple dress with a traditional off-the-shoulder look that would have fit in at any swanky 1940s cocktail party (and indeed this costume makes an appearance in a scene set in the Ritz Hotel in Paris), especially on the figure of a wealthy woman like Milo. The lines are very classic and the fabric just looks so rich; having worked mostly in college productions, I can only dream of working with something this fine. But there is an additional element that I absolutely love about this one: the extra flare of silk on the left portion of the bust (viewer’s left, wearer’s right). It takes this dress from simply something that could appear in a Macy’s or Neiman Marcus window and elevates it to couture, a custom fashion made specifically for the wearer.

And one more thing about this dress: it flows, oh does it flow:

It floats outward and immediately comes back into place without looking wrinkled or shabby, and that is the sign of some truly quality work in any production, let alone one by Bob Crowley.

Next, we have an amazing skirtsuit that really shouts out for some analysis. A black A-line skirt is complemented and popped by the leopard-print blouse that imbues the character with two things: a sense of power and a sense of fun. During my review of Christine Ebersole’s wardrobe, I talked about the idea of power suits, and this definitely falls into that category. The cut of the dress (an A-Line) coupled with the color make clear that this is a serious person with serious business and ideas, while the blouse makes it clear that lurking underneath (literally!) there is a fun and vivacious character to be found. With very simple jewelry, the simple nature of the dress is allowed to carry the day, with the blouse itself acting as the accessory. Very clever mixture of techniques that I like!

This gown made its appearance in the Broadway debut of An American in Paris, appearing in the Bal des Beaux-Arts scene where everyone (or almost everyone) is enjoying a masquerade ball. For those who are fans of Phantom of the Opera, the concept of a masquerade ball is not alien; everyone wears their fanciest, most memorable couture and everyone carries or wears a simple mask that is adorned with beads, jewels, and/or feathers in order to conceal their identity.

Milo’s masquerade gown harkens back to the red-and-black checked coat at least in color scheme, and that’s something that I like--but the similarities end there. The skirt is ruffled with layers of what seems to be chiffon, while the black covering is a much smoother, more satiny fabric. Jill Paice said it was her favorite gown of the Broadway production because of the way it allowed her to move and breathe; because the dress is puffed out and because the black is fit to her figure, there’s no need for a corset or other structure underneath. That’s why it looks a little bit smoother in some regards on her upper body.

This dress appears at the beginning of Act II and is another entry in the couture-inspired designs. There’s some classic French and Hollywood glamor on display here, from the bodice that has an almost sensual black lace to the way the dress hangs elegantly without flowing too much; it’s definitely the kind of dress you expect to be seen in, rather than, say, go dancing intensely. While it’s not apparent in this shot, you can just see the hints of a large bow fixed at the back of the dress, a mark of custom design that once again reinforces that we are dealing with a character of means. The accessories are once again relatively simple; Milo Davenport is a character whose wealth and elegance speak for themselves. She doesn’t need fancy jewelry, though the necklace adorning her neck is a beautiful gold number that matches the tones of the dress well.

The last outfit of Milo’s I’ll cover is this number from the finale of Act II. Here, I must confess, I am not as avid a fan of Bob Crowley’s design as I am for some of the other pieces. I like the way the large floral adornment acts as a bridge between the patterned skirt and the un-patterned top of the dress, but the pattern itself strikes me as dated--even in the context of a 1940s-set musical. To be clear, I don’t object to floral patterns in general; indeed, I think Paloma Young did a beautiful job with them in Bandstand. But this one falls a little flat to me. Compared to the other costumes prepared for the character of Milo, this one just feels a bit more low-market. I freely admit that this may be a matter of personal taste, and I won’t criticize the work that went into it, but it just feels like it would have been better with either a different, more subtle pattern, or even as a black dress with some kind of accessories. One positive I will give it, however, is that it does hang well on Ms Paice and the fur stole/wrap really does do it justice.

And here’s the biggest reason I’m not as huge a fan: this dress started out as the dress on the far right of the Milo sketches that I posted earlier. There, it had a subtle pink skirt with the rose adornment. It was sleek and classical without being overly dramatic, and it avoided the somewhat dull pattern work that the final number had. But remember what I said: sketches are just the starting point. Clearly, someone (perhaps Mr Crowley himself!) decided that the final number needed to have Milo in a patterned skirt. It was a judgment call, and while I didn’t love it, I am sure there are many fans of the musical who did.

Overall, I really am in love with the classic, clean, couture look of the musical’s costuming, especially the majority of the dresses prepared for the Milo character. Bob Crowley is a master of the costuming arts and created some truly elegant and beautiful designs, even if I didn’t always agree with his choices. What makes them work is not only that they fit the era of the musical, but that they fit the personality of the character and the actress portraying her as well. On the whole, I can’t really find much to do but celebrate the way this turned out.

Next, I’ll take a look at some of the other costumes in this utterly lavish production, including those of the leading lady in An American in Paris. Bob Crowley put so much work into this musical that it’s only fair to give his costumes the full attention that they deserve.

Stay tuned!

[doodlewash]

Hi everyone! First of all, I would like to thank Charlie for inviting me to be a guest artist. I’m very honored to be among all the wonderful artists featured here. Thank you!

Background

My name is Krzysztof Kowalski. I’m a self-taught watercolorist based in Poland. My background is not connected with art. I have a master’s degree in Social Readaptation and in 2018, I’m finishing my second master’s degree in Indonesian and Malay Philology. I have never attended an art school. I’ve been painting since I can remember and it’s always been my hobby. I used to paint with oils and draw with graphite pencils.

There was also an episode with soft pastels too. But it was watercolors that I fell in love with. I discovered them in 2012, and since then, watercolor painting became my great passion.

The Voice Of The Garden, 5″ x 5″

Realism

I like to paint in a realistic style. Sometimes I read comments like “At first I thought it was a photo!”. That’s nice, because it means that my paintings are realistic enough to say exactly what they depict. On the other hand, people sometimes exaggerate saying that it’s like photorealism. It is not and I don’t even try to paint photorealistically. I like to call my style just realism with a touch of my spirit. In my paintings, I try to be precise and capture the essence of the subjects, which are usually flowers.

Why do I paint mostly flowers? I think it has something to do with my childhood. My father was an alcoholic (he stopped drinking a few years ago) and art was some kind of a shelter from problems. I very often visited my grandparents who grew beautiful flowers in the garden.

I still remember the smell of huge peonies, lilies and tulips. It was like an escape to a different, colorful world where everything was beautiful, sincere and innocent. Also my mom has always loved flowers and, many times, I painted them for her to make her happy. I still do.

Pink Lilies, 14.5″ x 11″

Floral style

I can paint flowers for hours. Each of them is different and tells a different story. The shapes of the petals, their colors and patterns always amaze me. In my paintings, I try to depict flowers realistically, trying to capture the incredible shapes of nature, but leaving some space for my interpretation. There is always that more creative part of the painting process than just reproducing the picture. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not a hyperrealist. I always try to put in something of myself. My paintings always have a bit of my spirit.

Spirit of Hope, 20.5″ x 12.2″

My journey with painting flowers started with Janet Whittle’s Painting Flowers and Plants. When I first saw that book it was like magic came into my life. I saw how beautiful watercolor floral paintings can be. I read this book during one evening and I think it has influenced me and my style a lot. I wanted to paint like Janet. Her negative painting technique was completely abstract for me at that time, but I couldn’t stop looking at her paintings. I wanted to know how she did that, how to achieve similar effects. I started to absorb everything about watercolor painting from the Internet and books.

Botanical style

In 2014, I discovered a botanical style of painting and fell in love immediately. It turned out that I have enough patience to paint all the details. I started to read books about it, mostly from abroad, because here botanical style is not popular at all.

My first book about it was Billy Showell’s A-Z of Flower Portraits. It was the only book about this style in the Polish language (it is still the only one!). I was hooked. From my usual, floral style of painting, I went to another direction, which required even more precision. I really like to gradually build up something bigger from tiny bits and pieces. In 2016, a series of my botanical paintings was exhibited during the Museums at Night event in Gdańsk.

Botanical painting is very exciting, because I always learn something new about the subject I’m painting. In order to paint something correctly, you have to get to know the subject better. Here’s an example. When I was asked to paint 5 illustration for the Museums at Night event, the paintings had to refer to Maria Sibylla Merian’s artworks. My process of creating those five illustrations lasted about a year.

Attacus Atlas And Rambutan Tree, Detail, 16″ x 12″

I wanted to know who exactly Maria was, how she was painting, what subjects she included in her paintings, how she made her compositions and so on. Later, when I tried to figure out what to paint, I did some research on each subject from my illustrations. And that was a very educational process! Did you know, that in China the Giant Atlas Moth (Attacus Atlas), which is the largest moth in the world, is called “snake’s head moth”? The name refers to the outer tips of the wings that look very similar to the head of a snake. That’s fascinating!

Patience

Patience is always my golden rule. Watercolor painting has taught me to be patient. When I started painting with watercolors, I had to finish a painting in one sitting. Now I can paint something even for a month, because I know that patience pays off. I’m often asked about how long it takes me to paint a painting. Of course it depends on how big and detailed the painting is. Here are some examples:

#gallery-0-23 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-23 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-23 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-23 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

3 Hours

10 Hours

40 hours

Materials

I think that the paper is the most important in watercolor painting. I always use 100% cotton paper, because other papers will not allow me to achieve similar results. I use both cold press and hot press papers, depending on what I’m painting. If it’s something in a botanical style, I always use hot press. My favorite hot press papers are Fabriano Artistico and Saunders Waterford (I’m planning to test Canson Heritage soon). My favorite cold press papers are Arches and Canson Fontenay.

There are several brushes which I use most frequently: Escoda Reserva #10 round, Raphael series 8408 #6 and #4 round, Winsor & Newton One Stroke 1” flat. Raphael brushes have an excellent point. They are very good brushes for fine details. I always use professional watercolor paints and I carefully choose colors.

I’m a color junky and I try to be very conscious about the characteristics of paints. I always take a closer look at the pigments, not the brand, because I think the particular brand is not important when you use professional paints. All of them are excellent. What counts is the characteristic of the particular color. Most of my paints are Winsor & Newton, some colors are from Daniel Smith and one is from Schmincke Horadam.

There are four main steps in choosing the colors for my palette:

 Six basic colors (yellows: warm and cool, blues: warm and cool, reds: warm and cool)

Earth tones, which are three shades of brown: yellowish brown, reddish brown and some dark brown

Frequently used colors, like Permanent Rose or Quinacridone Gold

Additional colors.

I love colors. My palette has never been limited. Nature creates so many beautiful colors, why should we restrain ourselves from experimenting with them.

Big Porcelain Palette With 30 Wells

At the moment I have three main palettes. One is a big porcelain one with 30 big wells. I think that porcelain/ceramic is the best surface for mixing watercolors. I very often use dishes, saucers or I have even found a ceramic candle stand which works excellent. I also have a metal box for 24 half pans. And my latest purchase is a Mijello palette with 33 wells.

At my Teachable, you can find a detail lesson on materials I use. There is also a free short e-book about the colors on my palette and how to choose colors in general.

Preview of my e-book. Everything you need to know about my watercolor palette

Process

I don’t like the stage of making a sketch. I like to use colors, I love colors and I want to paint straightaway. It happened many times that I avoided painting only because I knew I had to make a sketch. Not long ago, I finally bought a light pad (Huion, size A3) and my life is now much easier. I usually paint from photos, so I print out the photo, place it on the light pad, then watercolor paper on top and I just trace. It is so much faster and easier.

Painting from photos and using a light pad may be controversial for some, but in my opinion there is nothing wrong about it. I always say that if something can help you, just use it. I paint mostly from my own photos. In many cases it’s just not possible to paint from a real object. When I travel I take hundreds of photos, why shouldn’t I use them? There are also many websites and groups where people share their wonderful photos under CC0 license or similar (for example Paint My Photo or Pixabay).

I share my process of painting on my YouTube and my blog. You can find many photos from works in progress where I explain what colors I use and I show how I apply them in layers.

Example: Melitaea Didyma Butterfly

I always start from the lightest parts of a subject. In this case the butterfly’s wings have three main colors: very pale creamy color, orange and black. Keeping in mind that it’s impossible to apply a lighter color on top of the darker one, I started with a very pale wash of Naples Yellow Deep PBr24. When this layer dried, I added the orange parts on top.

The next step was to add some shadows, before adding the darkest darks. A mix of Naples Yellow Deep PBr24 with French Ultramarine PB29 worked here as my shadow color. Instead of Naples Yellow Deep, I could have used Burnt Sienna (which makes a grey with French Ultramarine), but I like to keep within my color scheme. If I know that I can create a color with the colors I have already used, I’m not looking for a different one.

Before adding blacks, I painted the head and the body of the butterfly. I used white tempera with a touch of blue watercolor to paint the hairs. At the bottom part of the body I used a beautiful mix of Phthalo Blue Green Shade PB15 with Cobalt Turquoise Light PG50.

Finally, I used black to paint dark patterns. My favorite black is a mix of Perylene Green PBk31 and Pyrrol Crimson PR264.

Layers

I apply many layers of paint. Usually the first one is applied wet-on-wet to map in the colors and leave the highlights. The next layers are wet-on-wet or wet-on-dry depending on the particular area. At the end, I usually take a look at a whole piece and I add shadows, unifying glazes or additional layers of stronger colors.

I like to build up the shapes by slowly adding one layer on top of another. This way we can achieve realistic results. The layers are very thin, otherwise it’s easy to overwork. And the golden rule is always the same: allow each layer to dry completely before adding another one. This is very important.

The Big Broth Lily and Swallowtail Butterfly, Work In Progress, 16″ x 12″

Sketchbook

I also have a sketchbook. The one I’m currently using is a Stillman & Birn Zeta series with hot press paper. I bought it with the idea of urban sketching in my mind, but it quickly became a sketchbook for everything. I genuinely admire watercolor sketches of others. I have always been in awe with Brenda Swenson’s sketchbooks. Absolutely gorgeous sketches. I use my sketchbook for sketching obviously, but also for color testing. If I’m working on something complex, it happens that I first make some color tests in my sketchbook, to see if the colors are correct.

Teaching

I’ve always loved to share my experience and knowledge. On my blog I’m posting photos of works in progress explaining what I’m doing. I also upload tutorials and demos on my YouTube channel (most of them with captions as English is not my native language).

My followers have also encouraged me to set up my lessons at Teachable, which I did at the beginning of 2017. Teachable is a very user-friendly platform. The lessons are more organized, detailed and I somehow found courage to record my voiceover, so it’s easier to follow the videos.

Future

In August 2017, I’m going to Indonesia for a one year scholarship. This will be the last year of my studies and after coming back, I am planning to dedicate myself to art much more than now and create more classes. I will have more time for art and I can’t wait for that! I want to share my joy of watercolors with others!

Happy painting!

Krzysztof Kowalski Website Botanical Painting Blog Online Classes Facebook YouTube Instagram Polish Website

GUEST ARTIST: Nature-Inspired Watercolors by Krzysztof Kowalski -#WorldWatercolorGroup #Poland Hi everyone! First of all, I would like to thank Charlie for inviting me to be a guest artist.

[maria-perna-blog]

Final Project

For my chosen environmental art project, I have created an oil-based painting that incorporates outside media such as microchips. Initially, I choose this option because I am not an art major and this is the first time in my academic career that I have been granted the ability to do something more creative, and less writing based. I have always loved art as a hobby, and my favorite medium is oil paint. Painting and I have a love hate relationship due to my lack of technique and education, but I still love painting over other mediums of expression. I prefer to paint because it is more of a representation of how I personally see something- it lets other see into my head, even if for a brief moment. Other formats of visual art such as photography, bring in a visual aspect that tends to be realistic, and a direct depiction of a scene or object. This does not allow for the fantasy, creative, or unrealistic element that can come from a painting. No two paintings are alike (unless they are copies or used as references- and even with reference us, most artists put their own twist on their work) there is always an artistic difference seen in painting, whereas many people can take the same (or a very similar) picture of the same thing. All of the choices that amounted into my final product were mine, I did use a reference image for posing and anatomy, but my final production is from my own creative thoughts and a depiction of a fantasy that is present in my mind and one that no one would be able to take a photograph of.

Oil as a medium creates a permanence and an ability to create a feeling of submersion into the piece. Along with this, oil paint has the ability to be layered and to create a thickness to the paint that other water-based paint formats (acrylic, watercolor, gouache) do not. This helps the overall aesthetic of the finished product, and I feel the overall quality of the painting as well.

I see painting (and art in general) as expression that lasts longer than a vocal statement- expression that cannot be taken out of context as easily as other forms of expression Artist Henri Matisse said: “Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.” Painting also requires more time, thought, and effort, which is special for me in this time of increasing laziness.

I am highly influenced by great artists such as Henri Matisse, Alphonse Mucha, Alice Neel, and Gustave Klimt (along with many others). The influence these artists have on me isn’t necessarily always in technique- but how they view art and what they hope to represent through their art, as well as their philosophy behind the importance of art and what it really means- aside from just being a form of beauty or expression.

For me, my art is me, it is a product of love. My love of oil in particular- starts in the way it looks and the way it smells and extends to the freedom oil paint allows. Oil allows the user to manipulate it longer- it is very slow drying and lacks a sense of permanence while in the creation stages. Until I varnish my work- it will probably remain wet and malleable for weeks to come. This slow drying process allows me to make changes, cover errors, and opens the option for revision and freedom. As portrait artist Alice Neel nicely summarizes what I have said, “the place where I had freedom most was when I painted. I was completely and utterly myself.” Moving to color choices, I have used 12 shades of gray. The lack of boisterous color is a personal preference but also demonstrates my personal feelings toward environmental issues. I see many environmental issues as large-scale problems that need to be addressed on smaller scales- yet I have little hope for change. My views, like the shades of grey, are bleak, but not entirely dark. I also think a lot of aspects of environmentalism have a lot of grey areas as well which also plays into the symbolism of the color palate choice.

This particular piece features a woman with her back turned- this was an artistic choice as part of my concern for environmental issues is that many happen behind our backs- and have a sense of invisibly. Due to my decision to focus on the first unit of the class, I decided to add discarded silicon-based microchips into the painting by gluing them on before coating the painting in a final varnish. I originally was going to work sand into the piece as well, but sand is so difficult to work with and completely ruined my first paining, meaning it did not make it into the final product. This addition of outside material was done with the hope of depicting ease of access, we are running out of sand, yet I was able to hop on Amazon and buy 5 pounds of it with ease. In terms of the microchips, I want them to demonstrate waste processes. My dad is an electrical engineer who heads up a lab in Pennsylvania. I called him and within 6 days I had a box full of discarded silicon-based microchips that would have just ended up in a landfill as there is no protocol for how to reuse or dispose of unusable microchips.

So, what? My biggest problem with art is that I am constantly struggling with the question: does it even matter? As artists, we can depict issues and environmental concerns all we want but at the end of the day what is the point if viewers do not have a take away? Or worse- if viewers understand the meaning behind a work yet do nothing and forget about it. Painter Alphonse Mucha once said, “the purpose of my work was never to destroy but always to create, to construct bridges, because we must live in the hope that humankind will draw together and that the better we understand each other the easier this will become.” For me, this has as much to do with art as it does with environmental issues. I think art as a medium does have the power to construct bridges. Depicting issues including areas of environmental concern through art is important, because of the ability art tends to have to construct bridges. It has a way of bringing people together in one way or another. I do think that even if one person gets something positive and can at least think differently even for the few moments when viewing an art work- then is worth it. Personally, this type of depiction works best for me as it is easier for me to get a point across visually over vocally. As symbolist painter Gustav Klimt says, “I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written word, especially if I have to say something about myself or my work. Whoever wants to know something about me -as an artist, the only notable thing- ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and what I want to do.” I relate to this on a seriously emotional level. I am very shy, and not very good with words, especially when talking about myself or my artwork. I think it is very true of many artists that you can understand them very well after deeply looking at their work. This project in particular really helped me depict my own environmental vison- all without really having to say much.

As I have learned through the units of the class, appealing to the right group of people with the right presentation of an idea can be tricky and most of the time is not appropriately received by every single person looking at a particular creative statement. I think using art as an outlet (or a bridge) for anything- from personal emotional issues to environmental issues and everything in between is important and works to depict and present seemingly complicated and ugly ideas in a way that is easier received and usually quite beautiful. I always seem to ask myself the question: so, what? But, after thinking about it through the lens of this class, it tends to feel more like: why not?

[loriglessner]

Spring seems to be struggling to get here in the Northeast, but that hasn’t stopped me from thinking about summer teaching trips, hiking and painting in the great outdoors. I love to travel and fortunately for me, I do a lot of it as a result of teaching workshops. As you have learned from many previous posts, especially the last two on artists hikes, my favorite way to experience new places is to hike them and paint as I go. It’s important to me to not only record what I’ve seen via photographs, but to also record the essence of the place through my own marks. Please understand that these are just sketches, not masterpieces, they help me to keep my artist brain in tune when I’m not in the studio and they serve as memorable references for larger paintings. While I’m teaching a workshop, it’s sometimes difficult for me to get out and hike, so my favorite thing to do to wind down is sit in my hotel room and sketch. All of the materials I’ve listed in this post are inexpensive, lightweight, and fit neatly into my backpack, carry on bag or suitcase with plenty of room to spare. They are also TSA friendly so you can take take them with you when flying. Whether you’re a hiker, a teacher, a commuter or a tourist, like to sketch indoors or out, if you’re planning a trip and don’t want to lose your creative mojo, this list will be a help to you. Additional product images, examples of my sketches and how I use these materials are below each product description. Again, my sketches are not masterpieces. Be kind. ; )

Piccadilly Open Bound Sketchbook

An essential for any traveling artist to take along on a trip is the sketchbook, of course. I was introduced to this wonderful book through a workshop student last summer. There are so many good qualities I love about this book, the most important being that it’s compact, lightweight and can accept a variety of media, including water. Also important to me is that due to it’s open-bound binding and with a little breaking in, it lays flat without that distracting spiral between the pages most sketchbooks have. It also has a handy pocket to hold postcards, plants or anything else I collect on my travels. It doesn’t have a closure like other field sketchbooks, but that is easily remedied by a homemade tie, mine being a lovely piece of raffia. I don’t really like the word ‘SKETCH’ on the front, but that is also easily remedied by a little camouflage. Unfortunately, this book has been discontinued by Barnes and Noble, where I purchased it, but you can still get copies of it through Marketplace sellers here.

  Koh-I-Noor Watercolor Wheel

I love watercolor for quick sketches and have purchased a few portable watercolor sets over the years, but this stackable set of 24 colors by Koh-I-Noor is definitely my favorite. I found it in a museum gift shop near the children’s art supplies so I wasn’t expecting much in the way of quality, but I was totally blown away by the color intensity when I did my first tests. If you’d like to see a more comprehensive comparison to better quality watercolor sets, watch this short video. I’m no watercolor expert and I’m sure I don’t need a whole 24 colors, but I love having them at my disposal if I want them. I’m used to working with gouache, so I’m always searching for white when working with watercolors and this set has white! It really doesn’t work the way gouache works, but I like having it there for that little bit of opacity I always seem to need. It also comes with a handy mixing tray that screws right on top. This set fits perfectly in my pack, but it might be a bit bulky for some, so just unscrew the stack and only bring the colors you need. The set is very inexpensive compared to most portable 24 color sets, so if you’re daring you can go for the mega 36 color set available here or the colossal 48 color set here. The 24 color set is sold by many online stores and you can compare prices if you Google, but if you’re in a hurry just click here.

ArtGraf Water Soluble Graphite Disc

ArtGraf is simply brilliant for all that it offers in the way of water soluble products. I was first introduced to their products by way of their water soluble graphite pencils and sticks that I love. When I was in the art supply store purchasing more, I found that they also make water soluble graphite products that they call ‘discs’. The disc is more like a block, it’s shape inspired by tailor’s chalk and comes in many colors. I first purchased the Carbon Black disc, it’s rich velvety black almost simulates sketching in straight Sumi ink. I loved it so much, I bought the earth tone set and just love it for sketching the desert landscapes I gravitate toward when searching for hikes. The colors are so rich and complex, I can achieve a wide value range just by changing the amount of water I use. Although I would love to, I can’t take all of the colors with me, so I always have the dark brown disc in my pack. Its as rich as the black, but not as harsh and simulates the earth tones a bit better. Just like the black I can achieve a wide range of values and it’s great for simple sketches when I don’t have the time to break out my watercolor set. The discs are sold individually or in sets through many art supply stores, but for online convenience most of the products are sold by Amazon here.

General’s Sketch and Wash Pencil

When I work in any medium, I’m always about adding the line, the mark and in my case, lines and marks add up to many tangled swirls. For me, working in watercolor is not about painting in detail, it’s broad, blended swaths of color that yearn for a little detail-and swirls, of course. This pencil allows me to add those details in lines ranging from very crisp to a thin wash. The pencil works like any other watercolor pencil by either adding water after drawing or dipping the pencil in water first, the latter being what I prefer. What sets this pencil apart from most other watercolor pencils is the rich black line I get when it’s wet. Most black watercolor pencils seem to start strong and then fade out when wet-this one does the exact opposite, starting out a lighter gray when dry and then getting more black when wet. Its the perfect tie together finish for a bright watercolor sketch. It’s available at most art supply stores, but I purchase mine here.

Pentel Aquash Water Brush

What to do with all of these watercolor art supplies, you ask? The answer is, purchase a good water brush! I’m embarrassed to say that I purchased my first water brush in 2016 when yet another workshop student introduced me to these wonderful things. At the time, I had never heard of them and also had a difficult time finding them even online. Fortunately, they are pretty much everywhere now and come in a few brands which I have tried. My favorite is the Pentel brand because of it’s quality tip that I can’t kill no matter how hard I use it and I don’t have to hurt myself to get the water out of the brush. I purchased this set (not from this merchant), being wooed by a bigger pen with a variety of tips. Unfortunately, the tips soon fell apart, the water either came out in a waterfall or not at all and I had to squeeze the pen so hard to get the water out, it would break my painting rhythm. Although the Pentel brand is a bit pricier and looks smaller, the brushes last, they’re easy to use with an even water flow per squeeze and surprisingly hold more water than the larger brushes. My favorite, most versatile tip is the medium round, it gives me a broad stroke down to a fine line. I can’t do without this brush and carry one everywhere, even in my everyday purse. Just a side note-if you’re flying and taking this pen with you, make sure you have emptied it of all water or TSA will confiscate! Purchase both Pentel individual brushes and sets here.

Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen

There are no limits to the love I have for this pen. It’s super black, versatile, comes in a variety of sizes and writes beautifully on any drawing or painting surface. When I’m out hiking, I use it to make quick sketches, write field notes, add depth to my pencil sketches and details to my watercolor sketches. I have the extra small, small and fine point pens and use them all in the studio, but always have the small size in my pack. Read this post for more about this pen and to see a series of drawings I did with it. These pens are sold individually at most art and craft stores and online, but I found a nice assorted nib 4 pen set here and a mega set with all kinds of interesting nibs here.

Eberhard Faber Design Ebony Pencil 6325

I love drawing with pencil, I could do it for days. The problem is that it takes me about that long to draw anything because I use so many different kinds of pencils and leads, constantly switching around to get the right value. Unfortunately, I can’t bring them all with me in my pack, so this pencil is a great substitute for many of those pencils. It’s hard enough at the tip for fine line and soft enough to achieve a variety of values, from very dark to very light. The best part about it is it’s ultra velvety smoothness, I’ve never seen or felt anything quite like it. The smoothness enables me to draw in many smooth layers without annoying skips and dark spots. It must be kept sharp to achieve fine line, so instead of ruining my pack with a messy sharpener that takes up space, I use my trusty pink pocket knife every hiker girl should have and the pencil elements go back to the earth from whence they came. Unfortunately, these pencils have been discontinued but they are available from a variety of Marketplace and Ebay sellers if you’re patient and search. I found a good article that mentions other alternatives to this awesome pencil-I haven’t used any of the pencils mentioned in the article but there are substantial reviews to read for most of them.

I hope that this article was helpful and introduced you to some products you may not have been aware of before reading. As always, I look forward to your comments, questions and suggestions-the comments section is located at the upper left sidebar of this post. Please let me know what your favorite portable materials are, I’m always looking for new products to try.

Stay tuned for my next post which offers 3 Essential Questions to ask yourself when critiquing art, either your own or another artist’s work. When I was a professor at Tyler, these three questions helped simplify critique and went beyond the typical critique discussions to analyzing the overall impact of the work and what compels the viewer to respond to one work over another. Whether you are a professional artist or a beginner, this article will help you determine what makes an interesting work of art. See you soon.

Are you an artist who loves to travel? In this post, I share with you 7 Essential Art Materials so you can be Art Prepared for your next trip. Spring seems to be struggling to get here in the Northeast, but that hasn't stopped me from thinking about summer teaching trips, hiking and painting in the great outdoors.

[goope-jp-tenmei]

DIY Rainbow Watercolor Crepe Paper Backdrop

This post was sponsored, and paid for, by Rit Dye. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make Oh So Beautiful Paper possible!

Spring is just around the corner – and I couldn’t be more excited! Every year I look forward to the explosion of spring flowers, from pale pink cherry blossoms and purple lilacs (my absolute favorite) to yellow daffodils and colorful tulips in nearly every shade of the rainbow. Oh, and fluffy peonies in every shade of pink? Yes, please! Today I’m paying homage to my favorite season with a DIY rainbow watercolor crepe paper backdrop that is perfect for spring weddings, birthday parties, and everything in between. This gorgeous pastel backdrop makes me so happy every time I look at it. Oh, and my secret ingredient for creating this gorgeous backdrop? Spray bottles filled with Rit All-Purpose Dye!

Rit Dye is one of my favorite tools for DIY projects! It’s really the perfect solution for adding pops of color throughout your wedding ceremony and reception, from ribbons for floral arrangements to napkins and table linens to dresses! Rit All-Purpose Dye is perfect for washable fabrics with natural fibers, like cotton, linen, wool, silk, and ramie – or even for materials like nylon, rayon, paper, and wood. I’ve used Rit All-Purpose Dye to dip dye envelopes, create dip-dyed muslin favor bags, and even to dye my own Shibori-style pink dinner napkins! And did you know that there’s also Rit DyeMore for synthetic fibers?? You can use Rit DyeMore for polyester, polyester cotton blends, nylong, acrylic, or acetate – or even faux fur! I’ll need to try that one next!

I was super excited to experiment with multiple Rit All-Purpose Dye colors to create this gorgeous watercolor-inspired backdrop. I mean, it’s a proven fact that rainbows make everything prettier. And a pastel rainbow? Even better! This pastel backdrop is made from a few rolls of white crepe paper spray dyed with fine mist spray bottles filled with Rit All-Purpose Dye. Using spray bottles to create a super fine dye mist leaves the most gorgeous watercolor effect on crepe paper and tissue paper, and the result is completely unique wedding and party décor that you won’t find anywhere else!

The best part about this DIY rainbow watercolor crepe paper backdrop is that you can completely customize the colors to suit your wedding color palette! Rit All-Purpose Dye is available in 50 shades, like Petal Pink, Coral, Violet, Aquamarine, and Kelly Green. Or you can create your own colors using the Rit Color Library, which includes color formulas to create over 500 additional colors – including Pantone on-trend colors by season! There’s seriously SO much color inspiration in the Rit Color Library! I love, love, love our pastel rainbow backdrop (you can find the specific color formulas I used a bit further below!), but I could also totally see a gorgeous ombré backdrop in several shades of a single color. How gorgeous would that be??

Skill Level: Beginner

Approximate Crafting Time: 1 –2 Hours

Supplies

Rit All-Purpose Dye

2.5 oz Fine Mist Spray Bottles one bottle per dye color – I used a total of twelve spray bottles)

8-10 White Crepe Paper Rolls

Scissors

Protective rubber gloves

Rags or paper towels

Protective drop cloth

Measuring spoons

Gaffer’s Tape

Wood Dowels

Removable wall hooks

  To make the DIY rainbow watercolor crepe paper backdrop:

Step 1. First, you’ll need to pick your colors! The Rit Color Library breaks all of the color formulas down by parent color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, and gray. I knew I wanted spring-inspired colors, so I went with shades of pink, peach, light purple, blue, teal, mint green, and sunny yellow. But I can’t wait to try this again with different color combinations. Burgundy and blush? Lavender and deep dusty blue? Sage green and rose? Yes, yes, and yes!

Step 2. Now that you’ve chosen your colors, mix your colors according to the recommended formula in the Rit Color Library, dividing the recommended dye amounts by 1/4. Don’t forget to wear your protective gloves! We’re using smaller amounts of dye than we’d need if we were planning to dye textiles, but because we’re turning the dye into a super fine mist, we still need the dye to be a bit more concentrated and intense. Dividing the color formula recipe by four seemed to do the trick for me! Shake dye bottles before pouring. Using a measuring spoon, measure the amount of Rit All-Purpose Dye and carefully pour the dye into the small spray bottles, then fill the spray bottle with hot water. Shake carefully to mix.

Pro tip: be sure to label your bottles as you go, otherwise you’re bound to lose track of what’s what (trust me on this). I used a bit of washi tape and wrote the color formula on a small piece of tape, then taped the written formula to each bottle.

Here are the exact color formulas that I used to create the backdrop:

Step 3. Unravel each roll of white crepe paper until it’s one big long sheet, then place each sheet on top of a protective drop cloth on the floor of your workspace. Before you start spray dyeing, be sure to test your colors on a test sheet of crepe paper – or even just on a paper towel – and let it dry completely. The colors will become more intense as they dry! If a color is too dark, pour out a portion of the bottle and add more water to dilute the color. If you need a color to be darker, I found it easiest to pour out the entire 2.5 oz bottle and start over – usually doubling the original quantity of each color (i.e., going from 1/2 teaspoon of kelly green to 1 teaspoon of kelly green to get the perfect shade of mint green).

Step 4. Using one spray bottle at a time, spray a very light coat of Rit All-Purpose Dye all over each sheet of white crepe paper, using each dye color in rainbow order. I switched things up a bit with the color order; sometimes I would start with pink or peach at the top and work my way down to lavender, other times I started with lavender and end with blue. Whatever order you choose, place analogous colors next to each other (oranges into pinks into purples) so the colors flow smoothly into each other and don’t end up looking muddy. For the best and most consistent results, make sure the crepe paper doesn’t get too wet and blot the nozzle with a paper towel or a rag after 5-8 pumps to maintain a fine spray mist.

Step 5. Once you’ve dyed all of your crepe paper, apply a couple pieces of gaffer’s tape to one end of each sheet and tape the paper to the floor. Then, pull on the other side of the paper to remove the stretch in the crepe paper and tape the other end to the floor. Allow the crepe paper to dry completely, around 30 minutes, then remove the gaffer’s tape. It’s gentle enough that it shouldn’t tear the paper as long as you’re very careful while removing it!

Step 6. To hang the backdrop, use a few pieces of gaffer’s tape to adhere the crepe paper to long wooden dowels and use non-damaging, removable wall hooks to hang the backdrop. For added depth and visual interest, layer the crepe paper sheets over each other – or even cut some of the sheets into a variety of widths and mix them all together!

Ta da! It’s such a quick and easy way to add a dose of color to a wedding or party – and you can use the same technique to turn any white paper decorations into a rainbow, from round honeycombs to tissue paper fans and fringe crepe paper garlands! I absolutely LOVE this idea for a wedding ceremony backdrop – which you can reuse as a photo booth backdrop for the reception! Just be prepared for this backdrop to inspire a bit of twirling from your younger guests.

Pastels! Rainbows! Gah, I just love this DIY rainbow watercolor crepe paper backdrop SO much! But what do YOU think?? If you make this crepe paper backdrop for your wedding or party, be sure to share a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #madewithosbp so I can see it!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Rit Dye. The opinions and text are all mine. Check out the 50 shades of Rit All-Purpose Dye right here and browse over 500 color formulas in the Rit Dye Color Library here!

  var ts=document.getElementById('ti-pixel-tracker'); var axel = Math.random() + ""; var num = axel * 1000000000000000000; var ti=document.createElement("img"); ti.style.display="none"; ti.src="http://tracking.tapinfluence.com/trk/iWTQx/qFdiQ/p.png?p=yv4Fn" + String.fromCharCode(38) + "i=f0LK1" + String.fromCharCode(38) + "ord="+ num + String.fromCharCode(38) + "s=" + encodeURIComponent(document.referrer); ts.parentNode.replaceChild(ti,ts); JSON.stringify({"program_id":"578fb806-a224-11e7-91ed-22000a66c666","post_id":"4c98ccf8-a7ab-11e7-a2b0-22000a66c666"});

Photo Credits: Meghan Marie Photography and Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

from Oh So Beautiful Paper http://ift.tt/2GKxKv2 via IFTTT

[watercolorbrushpen-blog]

Watercolor Brush Pen Set

The Beginners Watercolors

Watercolor work are far different from oil work. They every have their very own element that provide very different results. As an artist I have enjoyed working in many kinds of medium for creating art, nonetheless, I would like to focus my attention here on my two favorites, watercolors and oils.

The very first thing that an artist has to think about when she or he begins a brand new piece is what impact do I would like have on the work, for there are issues that you can do with one medium that you simply cannot do with the other. Let us compare the two mediums and see the distinction.

Oil portray can be rather more forgiving than watercolors for watercolors are very not able to be erased or alter much after you start. When working a watercolor you must be fast and know exactly what impact you want. The second that you simply put the brush to the paper the pigment units in. You possibly can choose to place water on the paper before you set the brush on the paper or you'll be able to just lay the strokes right on. Also, watercolors are translucent which implies that you could see by way of it so know what you're looking at for errors will soar out at you.

One other characteristic of watercolors is which you could delineate with much better exactitude than you are able to do with oils. You possibly can put a pen and ink line right to the paper and carry that line anywhere on the paper. What lines of ink that you simply put on a watercolor are clear Vivid Watercolors and everlasting. An ideal weakness in watercolors is that you simply cannot rework it. For example, if you do not like the tone of a colour you utilized, you can take your brush dip it into water and apply that to the tone. The tone will carry out to a point however go away the residue.

Now you apply a brand new tone and see that it's not as clear and contemporary. Additional, in the event you attempt to rub the pigment into the paper it would get muddy wanting and free all it beauty. The key to success with watercolors is to be quick and lightweight. Do not try to edit, attempt to do every thing through on the first time.

Oil painting on the other hand might be very forgiving for you will get a rag and thinner and simply rub off the oils that you just didn't like and rework it. Additionally, oils are much stronger in tone and stand-out even at great distance. Oils have a rich luster that watercolor can not method. Nonetheless, the greatest weak spot with oils is that you can't delineate very will.

In contrast to watercolor where you can introduce a pen and do a number of cross hatching in desired sections of the work, oils don't permit the use of a pen or another drawing instruments, the paint brush is the ruler of the oil canvas.

In a pen and wash painting, the attributes of watercolors are like personality traits of an individual, what makes an individual, or paint, different and distinctive. Every artist creates a mode of their very own understanding their watercolors. Understanding three attributes of your watercolors will make selecting and mixing easier--and enjoyable.

Luminosity refers to how a lot mild penetrate a colour. A transparent color has a high luminosity. How does it work? Rays of light passes through the watercolor onto the paper and reflects back to the viewer's eyes by means of the clear paint. The extra layers of wash you set, the darker the colour, and the less gentle is reflected back.

One of the qualities of clear watercolors is the layering of washes, of the same colour or totally different colors, to provide a desired shade or a distinct shade; layering means to apply one coat of paint on high of one other coat of paint. There are no true clear watercolors, however any watercolor may be made more clear by diluting it with water.

An opaque coloration is the opposite of transparent coloration and has a low luminosity. The rays of light reflect back to the viewer's eyes from the floor of the paint itself, some or all, and not a lot the paper.

Identical to clear colours, there aren't any true opaque watercolors, except for gouache, also known as bodycolor. Watercolors which are opaque in nature might be diluted on the expense of coloration depth.

Lightfastness refers to how delicate a colour is to mild.

Some watercolors are permanent, which means they do not readily fade when uncovered to light over time. No paint is one hundred% permanent so do not have your pen and wash in any direct daylight for too lengthy. Some colors are fugitive, which means the opposite of everlasting. They may fade simply when uncovered to light over time.

Shield your paintings from daylight if they're to keep their depth of colour. Framing your work beneath UV glass is one answer.

Watch out if you have your artwork work near massive spacious windows. Be certain you recognize where the daylight cast its rays, from dawn to sunset, to maintain it out of direct sunlight. Some people do not realize this until it's too late.

Staining refers to how some paint take to the paper.

Some watercolors are high staining, which stains the paper rapidly and completely. These colours are unimaginable to remove regardless of how a lot you wet and blotch them, particularly after the color or colors have dried.

Some watercolors are low-staining and non-staining and can be removed from the paper leaving little or no stain; just moist the realm again and blotch it with a wet brush or paper towel. This strategy can also work after the paint dries.

Paint producers have a ranking scale of lightfastness and other attributes on watercolors and could be discovered on their labels and packaging. If you cannot discover it, name the producer for information. You need to use paints that have a lightfastness rating of I or II by the testing requirements of the American Society of Testing and Supplies, often known as ASTM International.

Watercolors are extremely widespread paints. It is very easy easy to pull out that lengthy box of paints and grab a paintbrush. Then you pour a jar of water and let the pleasure begin. While they're great fun you will do well if you happen to additionally take a little time to get to know some watercolor methods. There are several basic ones to learn but there are also some enjoyable ones, too. This text incorporates a good proportion of each. So, learn on to search out out some suggestions and tricks to make watercolor portray completely great for everyone.

Attempt portray on wet paper. Take a large sheet of paper and make it completely wet by dipping all of it the way into water within the sink. Take cookie sheet or use a plastic tabletop and easy it out. Take a paint brush and put thick, moist watercolors on top. They are going to blur on the wet paper and mix together to make unusual shapes. You possibly can draw on high with a black marker pen after your fuzzy image dries. Great fun! Read on for some more watercolor strategies.

Stick a watermelon or some other form of seed onto a sheet of white paper.

Paint an imaginary plant, perhaps, one with the roots growing from the seed underground, with the leaves and flowers and fruit of the plant relating to the seed that you simply select. This can be academic for teenagers in addition to a terrific recreational pastime. Keep reading for extra great watercolor methods

A "wash" is created when watercolors are brushed on very light utilizing plenty of water. Attempt to paint a scene or the outside utilizing light washes of watercolor. Do not worry if you happen to can not see the element. Go back to the portray when it's dry and use a dark marker or ink pen to add back the element. Creates an attention grabbing impact that will likely be very talked-about with viewers of your work. Are you enjoying these watercolor strategies? Well, there are extra to come back. Preserve reading.

Plastic wrap is magic. First, create an image with moist and colourful areas. Crumple a sheet of plastic while the paint is still wet and in puddles. Easy it down onto the wet paint however don't transfer the plastic round. Instead, simply press it flat onto the paint. After getting accomplished that, set the portray to one facet to dry and while you return and pull off the plastic you can find beautiful patterns within the dry paint underneath.

Use bubble wrap to create the identical impact as in quantity four. By bubble wrap I imply the sheets of packing plastic which might be coated with little air bubbles. This makes an excellent different pattern as the paint dries and can also be nice enjoyable, too.

Hopefully, you're getting the idea. You do not want to limit your self to conventional, time honored watercolor techniques. There are tons and many unbelievable ways of making the most of this highly pleasurable passion. Attempt doing a little extra research on this matter and you might be certain to search out more methods that you'll discover useful.

People with younger children typically have to find actions to occupy and stimulate them and portray is a well-liked one. They also like to do issues which can be inexpensive and highly satisfying so they're nice folks to ask for concepts in this space. Go on, strive a few of these ideas in the present day. You may be glad that you simply did.

Watercolor portray is a sort of portray artwork, which generates artistic representations, usually on piece of paper with the help of pigments which can be usually water-soluble. Other forms of portray make use of oil soluble paints or dry pigment in sticks similar to pastels. This kind of painting is effectively-recognized to many people in manner of kid's activity performed with colour boxed set and waxed pens. Such coloured blocks are actually swiped with the help of moist brush and the colour transfers itself to the watered brush and there from to the wadding.

Grownup watercolorists use various paints, although. On the other hand, youngsters's variations would not have the amount of shade required to get the results accessible with 'artist rank' watercolor paints.

Watercolor painting also make use of different kinds of palette explicit to the shape - naturally a giant flat piece of plastic with depressions surrounded by colours. Yow will discover watercolor paints bought in tubes as well and they are squeezed into these depressions and then let to dry. This is really the same of the children's set of dried out coloured cubes. Some painters/artists further use 'brand new' watercolor paint straight from the tube and do not let it dry. This is because they claim the colors are more energizing if the paint just isn't permitted to dry up earlier than it contacts the paper.

Watercolor portray has a unique techniques meant to different medium. The most quality is possibly the tactic well-often known as wet-in-wet, in that vast portions of the paper are solely moist, either with coloured water or plain coloration. The comb is crammed with shade from the palette and both dived or caressed onto the paper, allowing the colour to run wherever it will, flowering into engaging and stunning patterns, integration with last instruments of different colours and shaping recent shades. Moist-in-moist watercolor portray is in actual fact onerous to manage, however may yield among the most surprising and pleasing results.

If you are fascinated in exploring watercolor craft for yourself, deal with yourself to genuinely 'artist elevation' tubes of paint blusher. Most coat producers render a 'alumna mark' stemma that's considerably cheaper, however these paints instrument not fruit the self outcomes, which could be disheartening to the trio.

Relatively than buying a solon comprehensive ambit of cheaper paints, buy a smaller restrict of the upper caliber paints, since most any apparition can be created from mixing collectively two or extra further colors. As an example, you may mix a really saturnine dim rest a cylinder of inglorious painting blusher of their coat box.

[agosnesrerose]

Studio Saturdays: Mixed-Media Planner, Part 3

Welcome to the third and final installment of our Create Along series on making a unique mixed-media planner from scratch. You’ll love using this planner all year as a diary/datebook and an art journal. The idea was inspired by Dawn DeVries Sokol’s article “Creative Days Ahead” in the January/February 2017 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, and this is her take on creating a one-of-a-kind planner that reflects your artistic style.

Today I’ll show you how to art up the inside pages, which is the most fun part of the project. If you missed the first two installments, you’ll learn how to make the covers in Part One, and how to bind the book in Part Two. If you’d like to work with an existing blank planner, journal, or sketchbook, feel free to jump in and start!

Below are the materials you’ll need. With the exception of a few basic supplies, feel free to use what you have on hand—this planner is all about playing and having fun, and the pages will ultimately reflect your style and artwork, so use what you love. You can also experiment with some new supplies if you like, or give that tube of paint that’s been sitting on your shelf a spin.

• Acrylic paint, a variety. I used tube and fluid acrylics in a range of colors, including fluorescents.

• Spray inks (optional)

• Collage materials, such as book text, maps, ledger pages, and magazine cut-outs

• Gel medium

• Gesso, white

• Expired gift, credit, or hotel card, or a Catalyst Wedge

• Paintbrushes, a variety

• Large binder clip (optional)

• Washi tape

• Stabilo Woody Crayons, or Stabilo All pencil, in black and other colors if desired

• Artist crayons (optional)

• Rubber stamps (optional)

• Stencils (optional)

• Inkpads (Use permanent ink if you want to color over the stamped images.)

• Stickers (optional)

• Permanent pens, a variety

Open your planner to the two-page spread you want to use, and spread some paint on in select areas. I worked on two spreads at a time using different colors and techniques, so I’ll show you the processes for both. You can spread the paint with an old gift card, your fingers, or a brush—the idea is to not overthink it. I had the most fun and got the best results by applying paint with my fingers.

I had specific color palettes in mind when I worked on both spreads, and used paints in those tones. But since the paint will be mostly covered by gesso in the next step, and we’ll be adding more color later, you can experiment and see the effects different colors offer.

Add some collage materials, adhering them with gel medium. I used torn and cut book and map pages and sheet music. Here’s the first planner spread, where I incorporated fluorescent orange and magenta paint:

For the first layer of the two-page spread, paint was spread on the page, and ephemera was adhered.

Here’s the first layer of the second spread, which incorporates blue and green tones and paper cut into circles. I also used spray inks in addition to acrylic paint:

For this planner spread, I used a combination of acrylic paint and spray inks.

Quick tip: Place a sheet of scrap paper underneath both sides of the spread you’re working on to protect the pages and covers underneath. Dawn also has a great tip: Laying a large binder clip on a page allows you to work on the next pages while the previous ones dry.

When the paints and inks dried, I spread a layer of white gesso over the pages, again using the gift card.

The first layer of gesso covered the paint and collage, but I wanted to mute the colors even more.

The colors were still vibrant, so I spread on a second coat of gesso, letting the first dry before applying it:

A second coat of gesso gave this planner spread perfect coverage.

On the second spread, I used only one coat of gesso because I loved the look of the dot pattern from the spray.

One coat of gesso was perfect for this spread, which still reveals much of the color underneath.

Quick tip: Gesso comes in a variety of thicknesses; try a variety to see what works best. You can also try using watercolor ground in white or clear, if that’s your preferred medium.

When the gesso was dry I drew light pencil lines to mark off the days of the week. In her article, Dawn said that she needs less room for weekends, so she makes those days smaller. Think about how you’d like your week to be laid out. I like a Monday-through-Sunday view, but you may prefer a Sunday-through-Saturday grid.

You can divide the week up any way you like in your planner, and change it for each week.

I created another configuration for the second spread.

Next, divide the areas using a variety of materials: washi tape, rubber stamps, hand-drawn doodles, postage stamps, stickers, and strips of paper. Decorating planner pages is a great way for me to justify my washi tape addiction, so I love using it. I also split up the spaces with rubber stamps and collage papers, which I adhered with gel medium. By the way, if you’ve never used washi tape before, be warned that it’s a slippery slope.

Add the month at the top of each spread, and add the dates and days to the boxes. Get creative with the numbers—cut some from magazines, stamp them, hand write them, cut up an old tape measure—when you start looking, you’ll see that numbers are everywhere.

Washi tape is a great way to divide the planner pages into days; create numbers in a variety of ways.

Here, washi tape was used along with stamps and a strip of book text to create the grid.

Quick tip: Writing the months and days on your planner pages is a great way to practice your hand lettering.

Now it’s time to start building layers of color and depth. I love how Dawn often highlights images with shadows, adding deep color values. She recommends using Stabilo Woody crayons or a Stabilo All pencil; those are excellent, as are water-soluble artist crayons. I used a combination of all three, lightly drawing black lines around images and along the edges of the washi tape, then going over the lines with a wet paintbrush or water brush. I snuck a little extra color in as well with stencils, water-soluble crayons, and watered-down acrylic paint. If you compare the pages with and without the shadows, you’ll see what a dramatic look they provide.

What a difference a little depth and shadow make!

More shadows add deeper color values on the pages.

After that, I continued to add more color with the crayons, paint, stencils, and ink pads, plus extra collage, a few sketches, and some writing, rub-ons, and photos. The pages feel very organic to me. While each spread has its own look, the book as a whole feels cohesive.

Here is one finished spread:

This planner spread incorporates a huge variety of mediums and techniques.

And here’s the other:

The collage I added on the first layer became jumping-off points for doodles and sketches.

I decided to dedicate the first page of each signature to a list of my goals for the coming weeks. This goals page started with paint and Gelatos spread and scribbled across the page:

Paint and Gelatos were spread across the page to add color.

I covered the page with gesso, and lightly stenciled a pattern on top:

A layer of gesso muted the paint, then a stencil pattern was added.

I added sketches and lettering, plus collage and washi tape, to finish it:

The finished goals page includes washi tape, sketches, and collage.

Try raiding your art journals, sketchbooks, and scraps for odd pieces to use in your planner; sometimes I’ll like one element of a page and hate the rest, so I’ll cut out the part I like and add it to something else. This planner spread was the perfect place for a hand-carved flower stamp:

A hand-carved stamp image was cut from another project and added to a planner page.

In Part 2 of this Create Along series I explained that the binding for the planner left room to fill it with lots of stuff. I’ve started down that road already—on the goals page I created a small envelope for receipts, business cards, etc.:

A scrap of hand-printed map paper was used to create a custom envelope.

And here I created a tiny sewn book that I adhered to the page. The cover is a subway ticket:

I added a mini sewn journal to the page, using a subway ticket for a cover.

While working in the planner, I realized that if I didn’t have a super exciting week, I could still use the spaces to add sketches, doodles, journaling, and collage. I think what I love most about the way Dawn builds the spreads is the element of surprise. Those collage bits that you added in the first layer become great jumping-off points for drawings and doodles.

I’m having so much fun working in my planner that I can’t wait to get to it, even I only have a quick 15 minutes. I hope you love this project as much as I do, and make sure to post your handmade mixed-media planners in our member gallery! If you have any questions about the materials or techniques, please leave them in the comments section.

If you’re looking for even more ways to fill your new planner, check out these books, videos, and magazines from North Light Books—there are tons of ideas that you can use on your pages!

Don’t miss Dawn DeVries Sokol’s article on making mixed-media planners in the January/February issue of Cloth Paper Scissors!

Let Kass Hall show you how to make your art journaling pages come alive in her book Amplified Art.

Learn how to create whimsical hand lettering and make colorful journals in this Inspirational Art Journals video with Joanne Sharpe.

In Mixed Media Techniques in Art Journaling, you’ll discover how to incorporate easy and eye-catching techniques in your planner.

The post Studio Saturdays: Mixed-Media Planner, Part 3 appeared first on Artist's Network.

from Artist’s Network http://ift.tt/2kDAy67

http://ift.tt/2kcuald

[mysticsparklewings]

I’m Not Dead‪

I'm not laughin', You're not jokin' I'm not dead I only dress that way Out nowhere take me out there Far away and save me from my Self-destruction, hopeless for you Sing a song for California --My Chemical Romance, "Boy Division" ____ Have you heard?? Have you heard the news?? Well if not, I'm gonna tell ya: MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE IS BACK, BABY!!! :D On Halloween, we got the announcement that they will be playing a show in Los Angeles, California on December 20th. And just a few days ago we got the news that they're also going to New Zealand, Australia, and Japan which basically confirms to me they're doing so sort of tour, whether they actually call it that or not. There's still a lot we don't know for sure; whether this is just a one-time reunion tour or their official comeback tour, if we'll be getting new original music both at the shows and available for download/purchase or if they're just going to redo their existing music and covers, if it's only going to be the main four that were there at the end or if there will be some of the other members that were in and out over the years rejoining them...Where all they're going to go on this tour...the list goes on. But! The important thing, at least to me, is that they came back at all. Six years. Six years we've waited and hoped and prayed, been let down by false rumors and speculation...And now it's actually happening. I just... Hence why I had to make an art piece celebrating the occasion and as an excuse to talk about it. (I figure if I'm going to dump my opinions on the internet I might as well make some art to go with them. Sue me. ) Originally, I was planning on making something more along the lines of true fan art, as this is more pseudo fan art here, but I just couldn't settle on one good idea that I felt really comfortable pursuing. Although I am still considering doing an updated (or at least colored in) version of my Killjoys, Make Some Noise! (lineart) I did a couple of years ago...we'll see. Anyway. Since we did get the news on Halloween, it's worth noting that originally I'd been debating if I wanted to do any makeup this year at all or just slide on a mask since my only plans were going to Krispy Kreme, who was offering a free donut if you showed up in costume. But after the news broke, my decision was made for me. I had to. MCR isn't strictly associated with skeletons/skulls, as has become my preferred Halloween costume, but The Black Parade, their second album, does have a little skeleton as the leader of the marching band, and the band members did wear skeleton/skull inspired makeup during that time. Admittedly this year's makeup wasn't nearly as involved or elaborate as what I've done in years' past, but it beats last year's absolutely nothing. I ended up taking a few pictures to preserve the look, as I always do even though I rarely take photos of myself, and I would decide to draw one of them where I was trying to do this face that Gerard (the frontman and lead singer of the band) has made on a several occasions; this wide-eyed intense stare. Partly because this, I'm sure, is very close to my actual face when I heard the news that they're back, the makeup was inspired by them anyway, and also because it pairs very well with one of my favorite lines from my favorite song by them. Said line being, obviously, "I'm not dead I only dress that way," from Boy Division, as cited at the top of the description. If I'm being completely truthful, I can't even really put my finger on what it is about Boy Division specifically that makes it my favorite, as I've yet to hear an MCR song I truly do not like, but I think there's something in the lyrics of the full song that just sells it for me in combination with the high-energy music. But whatever the case, it is my favorite nonetheless. Beyond that though, it's really hard to place the rest of them in any coherent order because, at least to my ears, they're all really great. Anyway. So I went about drawing my face, erring slightly more on the realistic side than usually (but obviously not too much) in hopes of capturing the facial expression. Which, it's pretty good, but I do think it could've been a little better. I think my biggest problem was getting the eyebrows a mouth right, and I'm still not sure they're quite there since my real eyebrows are pretty translucent and the mouth was hard to balance between looking logical and more neutral than sad/angry. And I think maybe the proper expression was a little more apparent in the sketch, but it's pretty normal to lose some feeling between the sketch and the final product so that I won't discount too much. After that, I had to take a break from the drawing to think about how to color it in any style it and everything. I ended up transferring the sketch to Mixed Media paper after deciding I wanted to use alcohol markers as a base but not knowing if I'd need to adjust it with colored pencil and/or other mediums on top or not, and I did the lines with my Faber Castell Polychromos once I felt like just black lines would be too harsh and thinking colored lines would be better. Plus, the Polychromos are very non-reactive to water, so if I really wanted to I could add watercolor or something water-activated without having to worry about the lines getting messed up. I did not consider how the Polychromos would react to the alcohol markers, but other than one or two spots where the top layer of pencil kinda dissolved after some heavy layering (which was easily fixed by just going back over the lines in that area again really quickly), fortunately, it worked out okay. Although sweet sparkles I swear it took at least twice as long to actually do the lines as opposed to normal between having to apply enough pressure to get the right amount of color down and working on the differences inline weight.   Anyway. I was a little worried about some of the shading/effects I'd be doing with the markers, but I think I did alright with it. This mixed media paper (Strathmore 400 series for anyone who cares) is nice and thick, so I had plenty of room to layer up and blend as I needed to get the look I was going for. This came in especially handy around the eyes and on the nose when I told myself to at least try and get the colors like the photo before cheesing it and just using straight (or nearly) black. The only area that I think came out a little rough is really the skin, mainly the forehead. But that has more to do with 1. There isn't much contrast on the face in the photo so I didn't want to take it too far in the drawing and 2. I think I may have started slightly too dark for skin this pale. I realize that's a weird thing to say, but when you're pale as a ghost like I am, you'd be surprised how easy that is to do. And to be fair, I probably could've tried to adjust that with colored pencils, and my original plan was to add some white pencil on top in the areas of the face where a highlight would naturally hit (forehead, bridge of the nose, cheekbones, etc.)  But by the time I got done with the markers, I honestly felt like it was nice enough without any additional pencil that I thought it might be best to just leave it alone. Since I still have the original drawing, my thoughts may change on that and I could update this eventually, but for now, my decision stands. On the other hand, I was actually pretty pleased with how the hair turned out once it was colored. That is until I scanned it in. I don't know why, but the darkest shadows in the hair were too dark and too bluish on the scan, despite everything else looking fairly color-accurate. I fiddled with the scanner settings for a few minutes to try and fix it, but it became quickly apparent there wasn't much to be done about it at the level. Which meant I had to try making the adjustments in Photoshop. Now, I've done my fair share of scan-fixing, photo editing, and just color adjustments on digital art, but for the life of me I could not get things to work the way I wanted them to here. It became to the point I'm starting to suspect if the actual true-to-life shades of purple of the drawing are just really hard or even impossible for computers to capture and/or create accurately. Fluorescent colors fall in that category, surely they're not the only ones. In the end, after more time than I bothered to document messing around with settings and adjustments, and firmly decided I was not going to essentially manually re-color/shade the hair digitally, I tried the only other thing I could think to do. I took the hair, as I had been for all my adjustments since the rest of the colors were fine, on a separate layer and took all the saturation out so I was left with just the gray values. And I noted while I was at that point that it didn't seem to be an issue of the contrast between the shadows and the rest of the hair. The transition looked perfectly acceptable in grayscale. Then, I added a color layer on top of that one, clipped it to only show up on the hair, and changed it to an "overlay" layer so that I would get the values from the gray layer, but colored purple. It did take a couple of tries to get the right shade of purple for the color layer, and I'm sure it's still not 100% accurate to the IRL drawing, but it's a heck of a lot closer than it was. And this gets even weirder when you consider that just a few days before I made this drawing, I made a different one for a friend where I used the exact same marker colors for the hair, blended in almost exactly the same manner, on the same paper, and it didn't have this problem when I scanned that one in. I have never in my life. Anyway. The accessories actually didn't give me much trouble in drawing or coloring. Admittedly, I did tone down how many feathers and stuff are actually on the tiny hat for my own sanity's sake, and while I did my best with the lace on the choker, I don't have a ton of practice with drawing lace like this so I'm sure it could be improved. Although I did decide to color both of those areas (what I didn't draw/fill in with the pencils at the line stage) with a super dark blue-violet instead of a gray or straight black for the purpose of not totally hiding the linework I'd put in and to make it just slightly more dynamic. Which I think was a good call as it seems to tie in pretty nicely with the grayish tones on the face. Other than that though, I did try to stay fairly accurate with my color choices, and I think I did pretty well with that, all things considered. (Despite having a much larger selection than I did just a few months ago, I do still need a wider selection of alcohol markers in some areas just for the sake of color accuracy and smooth transitions.) Once my face was done, then came the text. I searched for a while, hoping to find an MCR appropriate font that I could hopefully add by hand, but my search came up empty. I did find one I really liked the look of though, called "Miserable." So I scanned the drawing in and after the aforementioned hair struggles, I got to play with the placement and structure of the words. I knew I kinda wanted something that just has that "I'm a logo/t-shirt emblem" kind of feel, and in the end, I think I got that. But I do think I could've planned out the drawing itself a little bit better in terms of the space left to fit the words into. I really didn't do myself a lot of favors on that one.   It has its problems, but I'm still really actually kind of proud of how this turned out...and that's really all I have to say about it. Eh, maybe I'm just really happy because I know why I made it in the first place. Now if MCR can just come within 1-2 hours of my location so I can actually go see them...please... ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[mysticsparklewings]

Fly By Moon

I guess I'm a painter now? I've been kind of on a roll with the painting stuff in general lately, but in particular diligent Sparklers of mine may remember I recently posted Starfall Mountains, where I tried out some super cheap acrylic paints after the "Acrylic Paint Itch" started up in my brain. After that experience, I was pretty eager to find some better quality paints and hopefully have a much better time with it. I ultimately ended up with a set of Liquitex Basics paints, after having an internal turmoil between getting those or the Arteza Acrylic paints. (Since for my purposes and circumstances both sets would've worked out to about the same price.) Ultimately, I went with Liquitex because I've seen a lot of people say that the Arteza acrylics dry really quickly, even for acrylic paint which is known for drying fast anyway. So in order to use them, I would've most likely needed to also purchase a blending medium to mix with them so I'd have more time to blend things properly, and at the time I was making the paint purchase I didn't really feel like making the additional investment when I could just get another set of paints that I could, in theory, use straight out of the tube. And admittedly when going to purchase a set of "beginner" but since nice quality acrylics, I was already a little biased towards the Liquitex Basics line because I've heard it recommended by a couple of art Youtubers that I follow that have greater knowledge of acrylic painting than I. Either way, I may still end up with the Arteza acrylics at some point yet since I unexpectedly ended up getting both a bottle of blending medium and an airtight/keep-your-paints-wet-longer palette anyway so them drying quickly now wouldn't be the problem it originally would've been. (And if my experiences with their products have taught me anything it's that sometimes you just have to test them out yourself to see if they're going to work for you or not, regardless of what everyone else is saying) But we'll see. But back to the here and now. Shortly after I got the paints, we were visited by a Luna Moth, and overnight she attracted a mate. They stayed together for a day, and then the next morning he was gone but she was not. Another night and she had laid her eggs, and then she was gone. It is a simple story, but I thought it was cute.  And it gave me some references photos to use for my first painting! I've had some 8"x10" canvases laying around waiting to be used for the last half of forever, and so I grabbed one of those and got to work. Originally I had to figure out what I was going to do as far as a few logistics go; For one thing, acrylics are much easier to work with if you do the background first and work your way forward so that you can blend the bigger areas without having to work around your subject. So I had to figure out what I was going to do for transfer paper to get my sketch of Mrs. Luna Moth on top of A. Canvas and B. mostly Black paint. In the end, I ended up using some graph paper with a pale green Faber Castell gelato scribbled on the back of it, which actually worked really well, so if you have some gelatos and thin paper but not proper transfer paper, that might be something worth trying sometime. I did the background with a mixture of the two blacks in the set (Mars black which is more opaque and Lamp black which is more transparent), a light purple color, and a muted yellow kind of color. I was trying to go for the illusion of texture without having to actually commit to painting out individual sections of the black tarp the moth was sitting on in my reference photo. I wanted to get to the fun part of painting the moth, not spend an eternity trying to get a semi-realistic tarp background texture when it's not even the main focus. And to some extent, I think that's one of my bigger problems with acrylics paints, in general, is that you often have to commit way more time to small details or normally less important features like the background and textures and stuff because at this point it's more or less expected of the medium. And it's just that it's highly uncommon to do a subject on canvas and leave the background largely blank, unlike more traditional paper or digital drawings. Acrylic painting, by comparison, is a much bigger commitment as to how far you're willing to go to flesh out the piece and bring up to "acrylic painting standards." And I'm usually really not into that idea. But I can ponder with myself on that issue and potential ways to remedy it later. Anyway, once I was mostly satisfied with what I'd accomplished with the background, which consisted of a lot of "put paint on, cover it up, blend it out," repeated several times over (and yes I know this is not a very tarp-like end result but I was tired of messing with it), I used my faux-transfer paper to get my moth lines up there and then began the more satisfying part of the painting. In this instance, I was able to use the more transparent qualities of certain colors to my advantage, since when you really study the reference photo I was using, it's clear that the Luna Moth's wings aren't fully opaque, especially over the black. So I went in with varying mixtures of this pale bright green color, white, and using some of the light purple I'd used in the background to make a very pale gray color for some dimension on the wings. I also used some water to keep the paint fluid and to thin it out to be more transparent on occasion when I needed to. My process for most areas was to decide on what the base color seemed to be in the photo, get that down and some of the larger/more notable areas of shading, and then go back and start to fill in the shading on top. Which I feel like is the standard way of working with acrylics, but I could be wrong.   The hardest part (minus the background, which I did end up touching up a bit after the moth herself was finished) was actually the little eyelets on her wings, mostly just because of how much tiny detail there is to them in comparison to the rest of the painting. But with a very thin paintbrush, much patience, and a few back-and-forth layers of certain colors, I did mostly manage it. The shapes for the top wing eyelets are a little wonky, though even in my reference photo (because of the angle) they are noticeably asymmetrical from each other. Also, the partial eyelet on the bottom I tried to add a bit of shading to, but it's such a small space I'm sure it's still not quite right. I blocked out her top wings and did them and her body peaking between the wings first, then waited for that to dry down some before moving to her bottom wings, then went back to do some details and shading on the top. While they were drying, I did her head and that rust-colored bar along the top of her wings. Then I did the shading and details on her bottom wings, then shading and details on the wing bar & head. I saved the eyelets for last and mostly covered up their original placement markings in the process since I knew that was going to be a lot of tiny detail I didn't want to have to try and work around so I wouldn't mess them up. And at the very end, I added the faint yellowish lines near the edges of her wings with the metallic gold that came in the set, as the metallics are all a little on the transparent side and that seemed like a better, more subtle choice than trying layer on or mix exactly the right color with the non-metallic paints. Plus, it adds a nice little bit of interest when you move the painting in the light; and I added a thin layer to her antennae since they're roughly the same color as the pure gold anyway. I tried my best in both sketch and paint to stay true to my little moth friend's form, but her bottom wings did come out a little short both times and some details either had to be adjusted or lost due to my inexperience with acrylics (for example, I did the best I could with the shape of her antennae since I only had a paintbrush so small to work with and it still wasn't quite small enough for the teeny tiny fluffy bits). Despite that, I still think she came out really nicely. She's not super realistic, but she's not super cartoony either, and I think I like that look. Also if you decide to look really closely there may be spots of not-great canvas coverage of places where the canvas texture sticks out too much or something; This would be because I couldn't find it in me to wait until I could get a bottle of gesso (especially because gesso is often some expensive stuff), I couldn't find my bigger bottle of cheap white acrylic to do a stand-in base coat with that, and my internet research turned up no good alternatives I already had on hand. So I just forgoed the priming and went right to painting, which allegedly from what I've seen is a viable option, at least for acrylics and better quality level paints. It seems to be the priming is more "necessary" for oils and/or really cheap paints that may not have great consistency in the first place. (Although I've mentioned before that even then I've seen a lot of stuff that presents the idea of priming with gesso as more optional when you're working on canvas anyway, so...) I will also say that these Liquitex paints seemed to dry slower than I expected on the canvas; I didn't have to use one single drop of that blending medium I mentioned earlier, or spray the canvas with water to slow it down. I actually spent more time than I thought I would waiting around for layers to dry because I've been too chicken to bother with a hairdryer or heat gun to speed these or my watercolor paints up just yet. I don't know if I've had a skewed perception of acrylics all this time or the drying time is similar to cheap watercolors so I'm used to it already or if these particular paints just dry a little more slowly or what, but I'm beginning to regret one of my counts against acrylics having perpetually been that they dry too quickly. So far at least, that's seeming to not be that big of a deal. (Also, if oils dry as infinitely more slowly as I've been led to believe then I need to never oil paint because I will be so ridiculously impatient by the end of it from waiting for things to dry!) I'm not terribly sure how often I'm going to be acrylic painting from now on or even what my next one is going to be, but I have the supplies and intend on getting my money's worth out of them, and I definitely want to experience more with acrylics in general after these new experiences and realizations I've had with them. So we'll see how that turns out in the long-run for me in due time, I suppose. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[mysticsparklewings]

Arteza Watercolor Polaroids 

On a bit of a roll with the painting stuff lately, aren't I? I mentioned in my last piece that I had a specific piece coming up to talk about the supplies I used, and this is it! So let's talk about the 60 set of Arteza Watercolors, shall we? Boring stuff out of the way first: I purchased the set from Arteza's website while it was on sale for $35, and signed up for their email to get an additional 10% off discount code. I was too cheap to pay $4 for express shipping, but the paints arrived about 4 days later, so the wait wasn't so bad.    The set comes in a sturdy paper/cardboard box, and the paints are 6-tubes to a little plastic tray, five trays deep in two columns. I was a little confused at first because my assumption was that the paints would be laid out with the first ten in the first top two layers, but actually, you make your way down the column on the left for the first half of the paints, and then down the second column for the second half. It doesn't make much of a difference, it just took me a minute to figure out that's how they were arranged so that I could swatch them in the correct order.    The tubes are 12 ml each (which seems like a fairly standard size watercolor tube from my experience), and each one has a label around the top indicating the color, with the color name printed on it. Just a note that I did have one tube, my Ice Blue, that had a little bit of this sticker/label that had ripped off at some point--I assume while it was still at Arteza's factory since the missing piece was nowhere to be found in the box. This also isn't a huge deal, but I think it's worth mentioning since this combined with my experience with Arteza's colored pencils proves that they do have a few minor quality control issues that pop up from time to time. Here's where things get a little more interesting, as when I swatched the 60 colors out initially, I was also testing for something else beyond color selection. (Incoming tangent on the way paint dries, presented in small text so you can skip over it if you have no intention of letting the paints dry and then reactivating them or otherwise don't care.) The price for these is awesome--$30 or $40 (depending on where you buy from and sales & such) for 60 colors that have proper pigment and lightfast information is a great deal, considering some other brands of student quality paint can cost upwards of $30 for as few as 10 or 12 colors, and professional quality paints can cost over $10 for one 5 ml tube--However, I initially passed on buying these because when I first started looking at them (not long after I'd only just started getting into watercolors) I was big into the idea of converting the paints from tubes to pans in a travel palette, but a lot of the reviews on Amazon and from more experienced artists that I value the opinions of made it pretty clear that these paints don't seem to like doing that. They dried funny, or weird, or somehow "wrong," to make them into pans. And so I wondered, is that why they're so inexpensive? To swatch the paints, I squirted a teeny tiny drop of each color onto a piece of plastic I was just going to throw out anyway instead of mucking up a nicer plastic palette and having to clean it off if the paints did indeed dry in such a way that they were unusable. (I.E. couldn't be reactivated and used again like most watercolors.) I swatched twice; once on a piece of watercolor paper that I cut so it fits comfortably in the box with the paints, and again on a thicker piece of regular paper that went in my swatch book for quick color reference. I had a decent portion of each drop left, and so I sat the "palette" aside and let it dry overnight. Being the skeptic that I am after other art supply experiences, I just had to see what they would do.    The next day, sure enough, the dried paint looked pretty sad. The dots were exceptionally dry (even for dried watercolor), some looking like colorful desert rocks, and some had dried so much that when my faux-palette was bumped they completely detached from the thin plastic, either in one whole chunk or some in smaller pieces. I was thinking I was going to find what I'd heard to be quite true. Still, I had to try just to be sure. It was a little weird though; the first time I tried reactivating the paints, I made a little Artist Trading Card (more info on those here) with my usual black-tree-silhouette-sunset look, and at that point, I noticed it seemed like the darker a color was the more water it needed to reactivate and the less well it did when reactivated. Granted, I only used maybe five colors at most, and it was a pretty small piece. Then I went on to make my Mon Cher painting with paints fresh from the tube on a proper palette, deciding the little dots I had leftover wouldn't be enough or offer enough pigment/color coverage for what I had planned. Naturally, I had no issues there. But I chose not to clean off the paint from the palette right away. Just out of curiosity, I tried closing up the palette in a ziplock bag to see if that would slow or stop the drying, and even if it didn't, I still wanted to keep trying reactivating the paints because I wasn't satisfied with just the one test. The bag seemingly did nothing as the paints still fully dried, but that may have been that I needed a newer bag since this one I had used before for other things and could have very well had an airhole in it I didn't know about. I had already decided that I wanted to make some more art as my "review/first impressions" piece on the Arteza watercolors since I was so happy with how the Mon Cher piece turned out that I wanted to focus on the painting itself, rather than talking about the paints that made it, and so I ended up slicing up a large piece of Canson XL watercolor paper into Polaroid-sized pieces (yes, official Polaroid size! I looked up the dimensions and measured accordingly!) and figured I'd make however many I felt like out of the nine pieces I'd cut, and then upload them as a set and talk about the paints there. Which brings us to where we are now. For all four of these, I used whatever dried paint I had left; both from the not-palette and the remnants from the Mon Cher painting. No fresh paint squeezed out at all. This time, the results were noticeably better, except on the last one where I was starting to run low on some of the colors and I think I got a little carried away with the water since the piece wasn't turning out the way I'd pictured it in my head. My conclusion on the state of the dried paint alone is that while I don't think I'll be procuring a specific palette to convert these into pans, I can definitively say that they aren't totally useless once they've dried, and that was really all I wanted to know. And just as an aside, if you do want to convert these into pans, you can try added a couple of drops of Glycerin (which you can usually find with soap-making supplies in craft stores), or a little bit of honey (or both if you're feeling adventurous). Both are used in watercolor formulas to help the paints retain moisture; even some professional quality brands like M. Graham specifically use honey in their watercolor formula. I haven't ventured that far yet, but I may try some things in the future and if I do I'll let you guys know how it worked out! Now on to something about the paints besides how they dry in the palette I noticed right away in my swatching and on my Mon Cher painting that these watercolors lean on the more opaque side, which to some watercolorists may be a problem, but it usually isn't to me, as there are some effects and details I like to work with that instead of having to pull out other supplies. You can probably see this exhibited best in the first one, which I think almost looks like a gouache painting, rather than watercolor. You can also see this effect pretty good on the third one, especially since most of the black on that one is watercolor as well, unlike the first and fourth ones, where the black portions are either stamps or pen. This also means that the color spread pretty far without much paint with the more water you add to it. But they also water down pretty nicely, as seen in the Mon Cher piece and as you can see somewhat on the second one here. And likewise, they layer up pretty nicely too. I was also pretty surprised that these watercolors didn't seem to mind having other supplies put over top of them; My white gel pens and black pens didn't fight me really at all with them. And I did use a little pale yellow PanPastel around the moon on the second one since I was afraid I'd end up with a harsh water line if I tried to use yellow paint to glaze it. It wasn't all peaches and cream, though. On the fourth one (the one with the snowy evergreen trees), I'm not really sure how much of it was the paint and how much of it was the paper (as this Canson XL watercolor paper is lower quality than the Canson Heritage L'Aquarelle paper I did the Mon Cher painting on, and lower quality watercolor paper that isn't 100% cotton can have issues with certain techniques) and how much of it was just user-error. But as you can see, what was supposed to the Northern Lights did not turn out as pigmented or as nicely blended and arranged as I had envisioned in my mind. To be fair, I was starting to run low on the blues and the pink I wanted to use, so that may have contributed to me making personal errors in fear of completing running out and being stubborn in not wanting to put any more out for this one last small painting. I ended up trying to use my white gel pen to save that last one, and if I'm honest I'm still not sure how I feel about the final product. I feel like it is kinda pretty, but I think the reason it just doesn't work for me is that, as I said, it's almost nothing like what I had pictured in my head.  I'll have to try this look/technique again and try different paints, different paper, etc. and see if I can get closer to what I see in my mind's eye. I supposed I should also mention that on the second/pastel moon one I also had some trouble getting the clouds exactly how I wanted them, but that comes down more to A. me being very particular about the clouds and B. the ever-present unpredictably of watercolor. At the end of the day though, I really like how these Arteza watercolors handle, and I'm pretty eager to do more with them. And, I don't normally say one way or the other on my watercolor opinions, but this time around I feel comfortable saying that I think these would be a good choice for a beginner, even the smaller set options and not just the full 60 set like I got. And this is where I'll talk about the color selection: You can kind of tell when you swatch these out that the first 24 colors are probably the exact arrangement you'll find in the 24 set, as you've got a fairly basic color layout: White, a few yellows/ochres, orange, a few reds, a rose/magenta color, a couple of purples, a few blues, a couple of greens, a couple of browns, and a black. From there the color layout seems pretty randomized to me, including a Neon Pink kinda all by itself and some really pretty pastel colors, and some really nice muted pale earth tones too. I think this is one of the first times where I've felt like the color selection is really well-rounded and there aren't really any major switches I would make if given the choice. If anything, I can think of some colors I'd love to add on to the set (some more Neon colors since the pink is one of my favorite colors to work with so far, and I'd love to see some metallic/shimmer shades with the same formula), but as of right now I can't say I'd replace any of the existing choices with them. One more thing I will mention: The paints do have identifying number codes, much like the Arteza Expert colored pencils do. And while I figured not all of the colors would match/have colored pencil counterparts, I was surprised to find that seemingly none of them match up, even ones that have the same name. For example, in the colored pencils, "Noir" (black) is A012, but in the watercolors, it's A163; likewise, Apricot in the pencils is A034, while the watercolor is A212. I'm not really sure what's the deal there, and I don't have much else to say about it other than it was just kind of weird to me. (Then again, I don't know why that surprised me; Prismacolor has both alcohol markers and colored pencils, many of which are named the same and look pretty much the same, but the numbers for those don't match either. So I don't know why these should be any different.) Regardless, I do really like them and this honestly makes me want to try their 60 sets of Gouache and Acrylic paints a lot too, since these turned out so nice, I've been wanting to try gouache, and if you've been paying attention to me lately you'll know I've been dipping my toes into acrylics lately. I'm closer to getting the acrylics than the gouache partly because I have technically used those before and they're cheaper, and I do have my eye on another, cheaper set of gouache I think I'd rather have as my first set to see if the 60 set would even be worth the investment anyway. The point I'm trying to make: I like the Arteza tube watercolors, and as long as you don't mind dealing with the drying issues (in/on a palette; on paper they dry just fine ) that I mentioned at the beginning of the description in small text, then I think if you want to give them a try you're in for a bit of a treat. They may not technically be professional quality, but I'd say they make a pretty good stand-in if the idea of paying $10, $15, or more for one tiny tube of paint (or over $100 for a much more limited palette) is entirely too much for your wallet to even think about. Speaking which, there may or may not be another watercolor piece on the horizon made possible only by the magical power that is clearance stickers at the art supply shop, so stayed tuned for that. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[mysticsparklewings]

Bug Girl

My WIP Wednesday! piece is all finished!   (Warning: LOOOOOOONG description about the art process ahead!  ) I don't think it's terribly obvious for a number of reasons (at least not at first), but this piece is actually a bit of fan art/inspired by How to make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow, which I finished reading Monday night--Though I actually started this piece a couple of days before   There's a concept that gets brought up a few different times in the book of the main character Tiger imagining a "bug-girl" in a jar, usually to help visualize her emotions to us, the audience. This concept really resonates and stuck with me even before I finished the book, and thus I was compelled to draw it. Technically the way I see that concept in my head looks different from what I've done here, so sometime in the future I may take another stab at it, but for this time I wanted to strengthen the connection between the bug-girl concept and the book, so visually I modeled the overall aesthetic largely off of the book's cover; white lines and white dots on a dark blue background that has a slight gradient at the bottom. The gradient on the cover is more subtle and is more on the lines than the background itself, but I took artistic liberty on that to make my life a little easier. My original plan was to do the background with watercolor, do the lines digitally and print them out (since I had some kinks in the sketch I wanted to experiment with digitally instead of doing a lot of additional drawing and erasing) and then use my lightbox and a white gel pen to trace directly on top of the watercolor, then splatter away with some white ink. But of course, things can never be that simple. The way I see it in my head, the bug-girl has, well, bug eyes, but for this piece, I didn't want to lean too heavily into the "creepy" factor, given it doesn't really fit with the content of the book (which is a great read if you like realistically heavy YA novels, by the way) so I angled her head down and her hair covering her face to keep from having to make the decision on whether or not I wanted to go with that look. And additionally to do proper bug eyes (at least the kind I was imagining) would've involved a lot of tiny circle/cell shapes, and I imagine that would've made things feel too crowded or would have blended into the splatters/background in an uncomfortable way. Additionally, I was going to have her wings raised behind her, but after playing around with a few different references and positions in Photoshop (knowing full well I was not happy with the original wings from the sketch that I completely free-handed), I felt like this more asymmetrical, lowered position and dragonfly-type structure just looked better and fits better with some of the movements of the wings described in the book (using them to cover her eyes, etc.) which in most cases aren't technically plausible with normal bug wings. My first real problem was with the jar. Realistically, it needed to be tall enough for the girl to stand at full height at least. And in theory, probably a little bit higher so it would be more comfortable overall and so that in theory she wouldn't just stand up and be able to push the lid off. But I was having issues with the sizing because the jar could only be so big so that A. it would fit comfortably on my paper and B. if it was too tall, the empty space between the top of the jar and the girl would noticeably awkward. So I fiddled with that for way too long and ultimately, it's probably too short, but the size balanced is more comfortable to the eyes, I think. (I also added the cross-hatching to the lid to make it more obvious there was a lid since originally it just kind of looked like the jar had a very wide lip.) I also gave her a set of antennae, and after trying the concept of segmenting her whole body to be more bug-like (which was way too many lines everywhere) I decided to add some plates on the front of her forearms and calves. It's not much at all, but I didn't want to stick solely to traditionally "fairy" imagery since she's a bug-girl, not a fairy, but in this lines-only format, there was only so much I could do and still get the proper impact I was looking for. Speaking of which... I did a lot of swatching and testing of my various watercolors that I have on hand to A. get the colors I wanted right, B. practice my blending of two colors with more paint than water since I wanted very dark, opaque colors, and C. test if my lightbox would even work under the thick watercolor paper and the actual watercolor. However, I made two errors in judgment during the testing: 1. The areas I swatched to test were considerably smaller than the actual size of the area I wanted to cover and even with my biggest brush when I went to do a practice go I very quickly realized that was going to take an absurd amount of paint, time, effort, and I was very likely to run into some blending problems with the gradient. (So, in summary, half-pan-sized watercolors and mostly small brushes are not great for very large areas) 2. Once I realized the above, (and I had already done two very quick tests with alcohol markers and that idea almost immediately went out the window for the same issue) I had to switch course and ended up using some water-soluble pencils (one Arteza Woodless Watercolor Pencil for the dark blue and one Derwent Inktense pencil for the dark teal at the bottom) to lay down the color for the background and then wet them down to smooth out the color. Which turned out pretty nicely, especially once they dried. (I was a little worried at first since while still wet it was looking kind of patchy and weird ) The problem with number 2 is that after it had fully dried (aside from the paper curling pretty badly since it was in a sketchbook and I didn't think to tape the edges of the page down before taking water to it, which was mostly fixed pretty easily by wetting down the back of the page and sitting a very heavy box on it while it dried overnight) when I went to use the lightbox, the pigment from the water-soluble pencils was noticeably more opaque than the straight watercolor tests/swatched I had looked at previously. It wasn't so opaque that I couldn't see my lines underneath at all but it was opaque enough that a lot of the smaller details wear really hard to see. And thus I had a pretty big problem on my hands. What I should have done was trace the lines in black on the blank paper first so they would be more likely to show through the pigment in the first place and there's a good chance that would've fixed the problem, even if I still needed the lightbox to see those lines perfectly. But hindsight is always 20/20 so that knowledge didn't really fix the matter at hand. I knew pretty instantly that I didn't want to try tracing the lines onto another piece of watercolor paper and trying to color matter since I seem to always have majorly noticeable issues with that, especially when there's a gradient involved, and also because I knew when I scanned it in it would be fairly obviously there were two layers of paper instead of one because of how thick watercolor paper is. I also knew alcohol markers were out because, again, color matching issues with the selection available to me, and also from some of my much earlier testing with trying to get the specific gradient that I wanted. That left me with colored pencils. And thus I went through the five different sets I use enough to keep where I can easily access them (I have others I don't like as much that would've just been a waste of time) and started swatching colors on a piece of the same paper I had the lines on and then held them up to the background to color match as closely as possible. I ended up picking one dark blue and one dark teal each from both my Prismacolor and Polychromos sets since the blue from the Prismacolor was closer but the teal from the Polychromos was closer but they were both slightly off, so to keep the texture consistent I mixed both together for both colors. This ended up being a very good idea in hindsight because I finished off with a final layer of the Polychromos and that kept my white gel pen from having the problems it would normally have over straight-Prismacolor pigment. (Since Prismacolors are wax-based the wax usually clogs the pen tip very easily; the Polychromos are oil-based, so the oil created a slicker layer between the wax and the pen). And all I did was use my lightbox to see the black printed lines through the colored pencil as easily as possible and went back over them with my white Sakura Gelly Roll, then I went back and outlined the jar and the lid specifically with my white Uni-Ball Signo, since the ink is slightly brighter and the nib is larger. Once that was all done to my satisfaction, I cut out the girl in her jar and placed it on the watercolor background with some double-sided tape I picked up the day before from DollarTree, clipping a few edges so they'd be as flush with the edges of the paper as possible. And I figured that would be a better idea than glue because the glue had a very good potential of being very messy and leaving notable marks. The tape was just a safer bet. And fortunately, the paper laid pretty flat, save for a couple of spots I either missed because I applied the tape by lifting up the edges so I wouldn't totally lose my placement or up by some of the nooks and crannies that make up the ridges at the top of the jar that were just too small to do individually. And there is one spot where that tape wrinkled on me, but it's fortunately not terribly noticeable in the final product. Then I made a paper mask for the girl inside the jar and got to move on to the slightly more fun part; I dipped a paintbrush in some white ink (white ink as opposed to white watercolor because I was concerned the water part might cause some reaction to the existing watercolor background that I didn't want and I was a little concerned it would make the non-watercolor paper that the girl and the jar were drawn on warp) and started tapped it against another paint brush to get splatters everywhere. I masked the girl since I was pretty sure she'd blend in too much if she got splattered too. After the ink was dry, I removed the mask and went in with the white Gelly Roll again to make some stars here and there; mostly just because I wanted to since the original book cover only has dots. I left it at that for the night since it was almost 3 and I was tired, but I came back to it the next day and racked my brain for a bit since it felt like it was missing something. I ultimately ended up putting the mask back on the girl and used my pastel blue PanPastel to create a glow effect around her. After that, I scanned it and did make some minor adjustments in Photoshop (mostly color correction, but there were a couple of black lines of shadow around the edge of the jar since it was still a separate piece of paper on top of the other one at the end of the day. And here we are. It's still not perfection, but I am ultimately happy with it since I think I got the look I was after in the end. Plus, I think I capture the spirit of the original book cover's style pretty well ____ Artwork (c) me, MysticSparkleWings I do not own How to make Friends with the Dark or the cover art ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram