The Ways To Use It challenge on Splitcoaststampers today was to use some kind of real paint. Not ink….but paint. What a puzzle for me. I have never really painted with anything other than reinkers. My husband has tubes of watercolor and huge tubes of acrylic paints and I have some of those little palettes of watercolors. I finally decided to try my hand at painting some trees and a fence with the acrylics. Having no idea what I was doing, no idea how to really mix colors, no idea what in the world to do with this thick paint, I just squeezed some out on a paper plate and started. The upside to painting with this thick stuff is that you can cover up mistakes with it. The downside is that I had no idea how to thin it down to lay a nice grassy area or to create a sky. I just did my best and painted in the scenery with small brushes and mostly using a daubing method to put on the leaves, grass and red flower areas. I created a little path to go through the scene but it is pretty pitiful. I promised myself no matter how bad this turned out I was going to post it. If for no other reason than to show: 1. courage, 2. that I have a sense of humor and don’t take myself too seriously and 3. that I can take a risk creatively. I love scenes and have become fairly good at ink sketching and watercoloring with reinkers and watercolor brushes, sponges and daubers. Trying my hand at creating a similar scene with a different medium was exhilarating even though the end result is far less than average. The experience and process of stretching myself filled me with energy and I know I will try this again. Hmmmm….I wonder if I should look into taking some lessons? or maybe get one of those charts that tells me what colors to mix together to make different colors.
Here’s my attempt. I didn’t make it into a card as I would never think of giving to anyone. If you wish you could tell us here about some of your creative risks. I put the paper plate in the photo to show how much paint I wasted to get this tiny little scene.
Paint: Liquitex Acrylic for beginners
Paper: Watercolor Paper….I didn’t know what else to use
Accessories: Brushes
I think you did a great job!!!! Better than what I could have done,I think you should make into a card!!! Way to Go!!!! Kim
thanks for sharing your creative journey today. This piece has alot of fun texture to it.
I love this. I have seen ones just like it in my local art museum. LOL. They are worth millions. Keep up the great work.
Dawn B
I am sure there are a lot of different ways to use acrylics, but years ago when I was doing a lot of folk art and decorative painting using bottled acrylics (which are way thinner than tube acrylics), I would first saturate the watercolor paper with water, until it had a satiny sheen, then proceed to paint using watercolor techniques, such as a flat brush, sideloaded to “walk” the color into large areas such as sky and water. It barely took any paint at all to achieve a watercolor effect. Once the background colors were all laid in and dry, it was then possible to go back with a round brush & still fairly thin paint and place in the details. I love how you make your scenes with the reinkers….and if you want to get that same effect with acrylics, I think you would only need to use a tiny bit of thinned down bottled acrylic paint, and watercolor techniques similar to what you already do with the reinkers.
I agree with Kim, Ms. Kittie–you should make it into a card! Looks good to me, and certainly better than what I could produce! lol
I love it too! More like a Grandma Moses, a little more primitive than your ink painting but good for you Kittie! And thanks for being so humble and corageous, though I am shocked to learn you have feet of clay like the rest of us. And I too think it is *card worthy*. Love ya Kittie and all of your artistic endeavors, who knows you may be on the Liquitex design Team soon. Teeeheeeheee! Hugs, Nancyruth
Bravo! Thanks for sharing. Ink “painting” scares me. Acrylics, now I am not sure there is a word to cover how afraid I would be. Keep on trying, I am sure you will get it such that even your eye will see the beauty that all of us can see already!