My new art goodies arrived from Creative Imaginations, and I have developed a new passion...The Twinkling H2o's are just gorgeous, and as I am learning from trial and error, very versatile-much more so than I thought when I first received them! They are gorgeous to paint with on their own, but they also look great layered over watercolor pencil, which is what I am working on at the minute. They are especially lovely to do florals with, and I think mandalas would be gorgeous done in the little pots of beauty! They come in sets of 6, 12 and 24, in the small pots, and I have a nice, varied selection of them, so I will be able to venture into other types of designs besides just flowers.
I also discovered a neat technique, using the "Twinks" with stencils. I used clear Acrylic Glaze medium to stencil a design of a seahorse on one page of an altered book, and used a mermaid stencil on the facing page, just for a bit of experimentation. Once the clear acrylic glaze medium had dried, I then went over the page with a solid color of Twinkling H2o's, and the glaze worked great as a resist! You could also mix a light color of acrylic paint with the acrylic glaze medium for a really colorful design.
The stencils are "Existencils", and also came from Creative Imaginations. They are great quality, and made from a nice weight of plastic, not too thin, not too thick, so they should last basically forever and they are easy to work with. Below is a scan of the page where I was doing my experiments. I need some practice using the stencils, but you can see the seahorse really well on the left. The mermaid, on the right hand page is just a bit more difficult to recognize. I need to buy a proper stencil brush so next time the images will be more clear! I just wish you could see the shimmer of the paint in my scan! It is just gorgeous...
After painting over the entire page with Teal Zircon, I then misted the pages with a couple of colors of Radiant Rain (also made by Luminarte and sold by Creative Imaginations), in Sea Foam and Ocean Wave.After misting, I took a paper towel and just dabbed at the designs a bit, to remove the Radiant Rain that had gotten on the designs. It came right off with no problem.
I also tried out the Princeton brushes that came with all of the other items, and I must say, I really do like these brushes a lot. I prefer a firm brush that holds its shape very well when wet, and that feels "weighty" (just a bit) in my hand. These Princeton brushes fit the bill just perfectly! I liked them so well, that I ordered some more of them to round out my set!
Now, when my pages get dry, I am going to go back and begin my detail work, making a border around the entire two-page spread, and working in some additional colors as well as more detailed designs. I will probably use some more of the stencil designs as well, in darker colors of Twinks and perhaps acrylic paint mixed with the glazing medium.I use the Liquitex brand acrylic glaze, and I really like the consistency of it. I use primarily Liquitex mediums in all of my art. For quality and price, you can't go wrong with them.
My next experiment is going to be trying them over opaque watercolors. I am really curious to see if they retain their shimmer when layered over opaque watercolor or gouache. They do such a good job and remain nicely shimmery over the watercolor pencils, so hopefully they will work well with the other form of watercolor. All in all, I am really pleased with all of the products I have from Creative Imaginations and Luminarte! These art supplies are also used a LOT in card making, and I have seen some beautiful examples of greeting cards made with all of the supplies I have covered here, so if you are into making greeting cards, or just like a bit (or a LOT) of shimmer and glisten in your art, you can't go wrong with the Radiant Rain and the Twinkling H2o's! Try the resist technique, and see how you like that as well!
Last but not least, here is another spread in this same altered book, that I just completed last week. You can click on it and see the details on the pages better.
Now, I must get back to work! Happy creating!
Laura Thykeson
http://artfromyourheart.ning.com
http://theuncommonartist.blogspot.com
http://thealteredbooknook.com
I also discovered a neat technique, using the "Twinks" with stencils. I used clear Acrylic Glaze medium to stencil a design of a seahorse on one page of an altered book, and used a mermaid stencil on the facing page, just for a bit of experimentation. Once the clear acrylic glaze medium had dried, I then went over the page with a solid color of Twinkling H2o's, and the glaze worked great as a resist! You could also mix a light color of acrylic paint with the acrylic glaze medium for a really colorful design.
The stencils are "Existencils", and also came from Creative Imaginations. They are great quality, and made from a nice weight of plastic, not too thin, not too thick, so they should last basically forever and they are easy to work with. Below is a scan of the page where I was doing my experiments. I need some practice using the stencils, but you can see the seahorse really well on the left. The mermaid, on the right hand page is just a bit more difficult to recognize. I need to buy a proper stencil brush so next time the images will be more clear! I just wish you could see the shimmer of the paint in my scan! It is just gorgeous...
I also tried out the Princeton brushes that came with all of the other items, and I must say, I really do like these brushes a lot. I prefer a firm brush that holds its shape very well when wet, and that feels "weighty" (just a bit) in my hand. These Princeton brushes fit the bill just perfectly! I liked them so well, that I ordered some more of them to round out my set!
Now, when my pages get dry, I am going to go back and begin my detail work, making a border around the entire two-page spread, and working in some additional colors as well as more detailed designs. I will probably use some more of the stencil designs as well, in darker colors of Twinks and perhaps acrylic paint mixed with the glazing medium.I use the Liquitex brand acrylic glaze, and I really like the consistency of it. I use primarily Liquitex mediums in all of my art. For quality and price, you can't go wrong with them.
My next experiment is going to be trying them over opaque watercolors. I am really curious to see if they retain their shimmer when layered over opaque watercolor or gouache. They do such a good job and remain nicely shimmery over the watercolor pencils, so hopefully they will work well with the other form of watercolor. All in all, I am really pleased with all of the products I have from Creative Imaginations and Luminarte! These art supplies are also used a LOT in card making, and I have seen some beautiful examples of greeting cards made with all of the supplies I have covered here, so if you are into making greeting cards, or just like a bit (or a LOT) of shimmer and glisten in your art, you can't go wrong with the Radiant Rain and the Twinkling H2o's! Try the resist technique, and see how you like that as well!
Last but not least, here is another spread in this same altered book, that I just completed last week. You can click on it and see the details on the pages better.
Now, I must get back to work! Happy creating!
Laura Thykeson
http://artfromyourheart.ning.com
http://theuncommonartist.blogspot.com
http://thealteredbooknook.com
I've been wanting to try those twinkling h2o's forever...thanks for the kick!
ReplyDeleteThanks Cyndi! You will love them!
ReplyDelete