Tag Archives: watercolor paper

Today’s “special guest star” is a piece of art I recently made – a self-portrait of sorts.  Two of the elements I used to create it were featured in a post from earlier this year, which included photos of some of the art materials or supplies I hope to use in my art in 2011.  (Please click here to read the original post)  I hope you enjoy seeing how I incorporated Caran d’Ache water-soluble crayons and joss paper into my creation.

Materials used:

Cold press watercolor paper
Paint brushes (four different sizes)
Caran d’Ache water-soluble crayons
Uni-ball Vision Elite pen – black
Metallic joss paper
Glue stick
X-ACTO knife
Metallic gold gel pen

Before starting this piece I checked to see if the black Uni-ball pen would smear when brushed with water.  It did, and I briefly considered using something else for my drawing. However, I like the way this pen lays ink down, and decided to go with it anyway.  After all, my life is a bit smeary, imprecise, and messy right now.  I felt the smearing would add authenticity to my self-portrait.

I slowly built up the drawing, and then added color.  Rather than drawing or coloring directly onto the paper with the crayons, I used a wet paintbrush to pull the color off of the tip of the crayons.  I was loose in my application of the color and didn’t fret over a bit of color mingling in the sediment layers.

The grayish wash around the heart was made by marking with the black pen on my paper palette, diluting it with a paintbrush and water, and then painting the ink wash onto the paper.  I also traced along the drawing’s black pen lines to dilute and soften the black, which created the gray ghosting.

I cut the joss paper into strips by hand, varying width and length.  After cutting slits into the heart with an X-ACTO knife, I threaded the joss paper pieces through to the back, and used the glue stick to glue the paper down on both the front and back of the watercolor paper.

The metallic gold gel pen was used at the end, to incorporate more gold into the lower part of the piece – in the sediment layers and on the plant/heart’s stem.  I also added gold metallic markings to the areas on either side of the paper beams of light.

Please keep an eye out for more of 2011’s Artful Ingredients, which will be used and shared in the coming months.  The next ingredient shown will likely be the sturdy, white shipping envelopes.  Like a mad scientist, I’ve been experimenting lately.  Wait ‘till you see what I’ve come up with!

Warm regards,
Melody