Painters Online

Start Art 5 48 RT START www.painters-online.co.uk These 24 inspirational and achievable ideas using Inktense pencils will make ideal small cards and offer the perfect way to experiment with this medium. Lightly position squares or oblongs on your watercolour paper, then add a series of colour combinations of your choice and combine the various techniques described to produce small 2 2in. (5 5cm) studies. You may want to discard some of these, but many will be suitable for turning into cards. Cut out the ones you choose to use as cards, using a craft knife, and cut just outside your painting line. These can then be stuck onto a card or watercolour paper base. To make a simple card base, cut out pieces of watercolour paper or card double the size you need to create your card. For example, if you want a card 3 1 ⁄ 4 3 3 ⁄ 4 in. (8 12cm) cut your paper to 6 1 ⁄ 4 4 3 ⁄ 4 in. (16 12cm) and fold this down the centre of the longest edge. Place the folded paper onto your work surface, being aware of which half you are working on, so that when the image is attached to the card, the card opens the right way! Using contact adhesive simply stick your selected study onto the front of your card. By combining two or more of the techniques described on pages 46–47, Inktense pencils can be an exciting and varied medium and used to create simple images such as Tree and Figures, right. Once you have experimented with these water-soluble pencils you can begin to use them with other media. Using masking fluid Masking fluid is a liquid rubber solution that protects the paper from the paint. Once applied and left to dry, paint can be added over the top then, when dry, the masking fluid is removed to reveal the white paper which can then either be left, or painted over in another colour. Tree and Figures, using all water-soluble coloured pencil techniques together, 7 3 ⁄ 4 6 1 ⁄ 4 in. (20 16cm). I began by shading the figures as silhouettes using saddle brown on the dry paper. Then a little hot red was added to the child’s top and green aquamarine to the heads and clothing. I pressed very lightly to achieve a subtle result (dry-on-dry). I then used the brush and wet the figures. Using the palette method to lift wet colour I used the brush to flick up the grasses in the foreground (wet-on- dry). Whilst this was all still wet I used a mist bottle of water and from about 12in. (30cm) above the paper I gently sprayed a fine mist of water over the tree area and bottom of the picture. I immediately dropped in colour with the brush, allowing it to move freely onto the wet sections without agitating it. I then used my craft knife to scrape the speckled texture on top using all the colours except red (wet-on-wet). Whilst still wet (it is also possible to re- spray an area if it begins to dry) I added the trunk, branches and twig details using saddle brown (dry-on-wet) CREATE SMALL STUDIES THAT CAN BE TURNED INTO GREETINGS CARDS