Friday, July 06, 2012

Watercolor Workshop: Techniques part two!

Well how do?
I hope your Fourth of July was tons of fun. Ours was spent in the company of good friends, good music, and enthusiastic children.

This post will wrap our wet-on-dry techniques. (Next post will be using the assorted techniques to create a picture.) 

Assemble your supplies! 


Paper
Paint
Water
Brushes (I'm using a 9 round and a 4 round)
Spray bottle
Painters tape 
Scissors

First! We're going to do a technique called masking. It's when you lay down a barrier on the paper to prevent paint from sticking to the surface. There are masking fluids available (Friskit is one), but I prefer to use painters tape. Because I am lazy--it peels up easy, and you don't have to wait for it to dry. And because with your trusty scissors, you can cut shapes out of painters tape.


You can cut simple shapes like hearts, circles, squares and triangles. Then you can combine your simple shapes to make more complex shapes.


Like houses! Or letters and numbers. Or animals...oooh, that'd be tricky...

You can also make irregular stripes by tearing your painters tape. 
Then rub the edges to make sure they are adhered to your paper. 
Paint a wash over the tape. 
After the paint has completely dried, peel up your tape.


You can fill the white space left with doodles, or add another layer of paint.

Technique two! 
Get your spray bottle and fill it with water.
Lay down a wash of paint and spray water onto it.



Based on how close you are/how much water you spray (less is more!), you'll get two different effects.


 The top, being farther away from the bottle, gives a raindrop/snowflake effect.
The bottom, being closer to the bottle, gives a marbleized effect.

So what can you do with these two?
You can make a flag...

Lay down your painters tape, and do a wash of orange-red on the stripes, and cerulean in the field of blue. Spray the blue with the spray bottle from about 6 inches away. Let the paint dry, then peel up your tape.


Next time: wet-on-dry techniques to create your own painting!

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