Inspiration Sunday

Inspiration Sunday means a painting exercise. The cards chosen last week instructed me to:

card 1: - use matte medium, gesso or gel medium to texture the paper, and paint over this surface

card 2:- use at least 12 pigments then glaze over some or all with a transparent wash

I chose a piece of watercolour paper that had an unwanted wash on it, and applied gel medium to add texture. I was thinking of hills, a tree, and rocks. Not a wonderfully inspiring subject, I suppose.

Here's how the paper looked after the gel medium and a coating of gesso was applied:

Normally, I would use either oils or acrylics over gel medium, but most of my art supplies were packed away in preparation for painting my art room.
I had some crayons, and wondered if they would work on the medium.
 
 
 
Did they?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ummm, no! Yech! Ugly!


Okay, cover it with gesso and wait for it to dry............









I found some acrylic paint, but no brushes, and no palette, so I 'stole' a watercolour brush, and mixed the paint on the paper while mostly dry- brushing.......

 
 
 
Well, it might be a little better, but dry-brushing the paint onto the paper and trying to blend it just wasn't working. The texture from the gel medium was hindering the painting rather than helping it.
Obviously, I hadn't thought this through very well before jumping in......(I tend to do that regularly, and then wonder why things aren't working....lol )
 
 
 
 
The next step? More gesso. I slopped it over the acrylics, and waited for it to dry......
 
 
 

Liquid acrylics to the rescue!  I decided real wasn't working, so I'd play with an abstract background. I used the following colours: titanium white, red oxide, quinacridone gold, phthalo green, sap green, green gold, iridescent antique gold, iridescent copper, iridescent gold deep, iridescent silver, interference red, burnt sienna, and payne's grey.
 
 
 
Okay, now what?
I decided to play some more.
I hadn't packed away my watercolour inks yet............
 
 
 
 
And doodled this design

Then added a touch of red




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Although I should have put a wash over part of the paper, that would have made the inks run and disperse, so I opted not to do that step.
 
I learned that crayons don't work on gel medium, that I should plan ahead better, and that not having the  proper equipment means I'll probably just be making a mess instead of creating art. I also learned that having a big jar of gesso can be a good thing! haha
What do you think of the result?
 
Next week's challenge:
card 1: in the centre of watercolour paper, draw a circle, oval or rectangle and design borders around your shape with abstract patterns. Use contrasts.
card 2: do a painting about keys
 
Hope you've had a wonderful weekend!
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz