Sunday, March 11, 2012

Being sick since last Friday really sucks! Because of it, I haven't been doing much art lately. Just to much going on I guess. But I wanted to submit a new piece that I tried something new with. I am not totally happy with the outcome, but it was a great learning experience. For one thing, I learned that if you want to put a wash of color on your art....don't use PERMANENT markers for the color! Duh!!! I learned that you can put a nice wash of mixed color on your tangle by taking a sheet of plastic (I used my cutting board plastic for this one) that is slightly larger than the paper. Color the sheet with WASHABLE markers here and there where you want the color wash to be. Spritz it lightly with water and place the drawing face down on the sheet. Kinda swish it around if you like to get the color mingling with one another and pull the paper up. You can let the wet color drip down for more color tones and effects if you like or you can spritz the paper and spread the color out more for a lighter tone. Here is my tip: I first tried this with graphic markers not realizing that they are in fact permanent markers which dry very quickly. When I was done coloring the plastic, I realized that all I had accomplished was making a very colorful sheet of plastic!!! The water would not mix with the marker at all!!! Go figure. I then switched to my daughters Crayola washable markers, which worked much better...again...DUH! I think I will practice some more with this technique, trying different effects and darks vs. lights. You can also go in after the paper is dry and add more color with pencils, markers or whatever! (I found this idea in one of my Tangled books called "Time to Tangle with Color" by Marie Browning. This is an awesome book you can get through Amazon!)


This is my Tree house Tangle called "The best Day Ever!" I did this one on a 11" x 14" Bristol paper. I would not recommend this paper if you will be wiping the color any because the coating does come off and the black lines of the tangle do lighten up quite a bit. The next one I do will on a mixed media paper, also so that I can add some watercolor colors as well as some oil pastels. Keep watching for that one! It will turn out great I am sure...yeah right!!!