Flowers in Mixed Media – a Work in Progress

Began with a charcoal drawing, then: watercolour (a little gouache) and Inktense ink block washes, mat acrylic medium, white acrylic paint… In these last stages I’m adding layers of gloss acrylic medium mixed with watercolours/ink to intensify colours…

It’s on a watercolour canvas (8” x 10”) but I’ve found most canvases work well with this type of media. 

I used an iPad drawing I did of roses, for a reference. I saw them when visiting one of my sons. There’s a inkjet print I did of it below – more about my printing processes here.

In my painting I used different colours for the flowers. I lost some of the looseness that I like in the iPad drawing. The white paint was handy in helping bring some of that vitality back, before adding more colour washes.

Sometimes I use a bit more charcoal here and there to strengthen the darks and linework, with often a little colour (and acrylic medium) over the top of it. 

 

I like the speed of dipping into watercolours and ink blocks, and that they dry quickly and I can do lots of layering. And I can go back to the paint palettes hours later or the next day, and unlike acrylics they haven’t dried out. 

It’s looking a little overworked, not to worry – good fun, and always learning things as I go along.

Thanks for visiting!