Most of the time my preferred medium is acrylic paint. They work so beautifully with the recycled journals I normally work in. I also love the Strathmore Visual Journals...they have drawing, mixed media, bristol board, and my favorite...watercolor paper. After watching Strathmore's latest online workshop, Watercolor Sketching with Cathy Johnson I decided it was time to experiment with my long ignored watercolors. Until I picked up a few tips from Cathy's workshop I had always felt like all I created with watercolors was a muddy mess.
I discovered my favorite pages were the ones I first laid a little color on, either leftover color on a wet brush applied to the page or wetting the page first and spreading dabs of color. Once this was dry I then drew shapes with a pencil and started painting. Drawing the same basic shapes on different pages gave me a chance to perfect the brush strokes needed for curved areas. With a little practice I was able to create light and dark areas.....my favorite watercolor effect.
Of course I had to add a few tangles to one of them, most of the patterns are from Sandy Steen Bartholmew's books. I first erased the pencil lines I had drawn for the original shapes...this gave me a chance to come back in with watercolors and create an aura or shadow around them.
I also learned just one swoop of color on the brush isn't enough for me....I let some areas dry and came back in with at least another brush or two of color to deepen portions of the image. All of these pages are now ready for journaling or zentangle art...which one?
