Paint, Pencils and Pixels

Hi, I’m back from my annual Summer blogging break. When I left I was beginning to use more of my traditional art media. After an intensive time (I’m not one to do things by half measures) with iPad art in these past few years, it was a bit strange to be dipping brushes into water, and squeezing paint tubes, not too many tubes though – except for acrylics, as I still prefer using watercolour pan sets: Winsor and Newton, Sennelier, and love my pan set of Caran D’Ache gouache colours… I had some dips into art app media as well. Really thankful† for all my choices!

I’ve bought a fair bit of watercolour and drawing paper in recent months, which adds nicely to my collection of lovely cotton, and Bamboo inkjet papers – I’m keen to use sustainably sourced, eco friendly paper. I love paper!

When I realized my Epson Printer could take 300gsm paper quite well, I was trying out all sorts of watercolour paper through it: beautiful %100 Arches and Fabriano paper, Canson Drawing 220 paper… and others… These I particulary like to use if I know I’m going to add more media to the print. Inkjet paper does not easily take watercolour, and coloured pencil can look too scratchy on it. I’ve discovered how the paper I use can make a huge a difference to the look of a print.

I may add watercolour to the print above on the left, but I think it looks quite effective without it. I also made a print of the original with water colour, and enlarged it onto an A4 size paper…printed up well.

I’m experimenting with using a varnish as a final finish to my watercolours and gouache painting, as I mention on this pic above.

On an acrylic painting I prefer a satin finish, but for watercolour I knock back the gloss with a final matt varnish. It’s best not to have two coats of matt, can be too murky. I’ve found no trouble in brushing it on, which is great, as I don’t want spray wafting around the place. *Also, I’ve discovered another excellent way to varnish a work (particularly suitable for watercolours, as it has a low sheen) which you can read about in this post, here.

I’m still keen, as you can see, on drawing “faces” and “mother and baby” images..

I’m dabbling into doing more landscapes… I live in a beautiful part of Australia, and when I’m out walking, I’ve been taking some photos for some visual information. I’ve added a few of them in the compilation of images below.

One last work! a painting I enjoyed doing in the “Procreate” app.

Putting together my posts, are much like keeping a journal record, and help me see the way I’m going in my art journey.

In my writing I tend to share mainly about art processes; and hope my art can most times convey calm and happy feelings, and my faith in God†.

Thank you for looking through this long post. Enjoy your day!