Mixing acrylic paints with a palette knife

I have a set of plastic palette knifes which I bought years ago. I haven't used them much - whenever I tried to use them I had the impression that I was doing it the wrong way, and so I stopped. In addition to that I have been using acrylic inks mostly, and mixing them was fine whenever I used the brush to mix. 

However a few days ago I was looking at my collection of acrylic paint tubes (all kind of brands, some heavy body, some soft body, some craft paints) and thought that maybe using a palette knife for color mixing and flattening out the blob of paint could help me with doing a detailed painting even with acrylic tube paints. I watched some videos on YouTube, and then I took my heart into my hands andpa tried it myself. You can see the result in the painting above: The various shades of grey were done with mixing a grey craft paint with a white no namer by using a paöette knife. Of course I need a lot more practice, but I feel that I am on the right way.

In addition to that I tried another new thing: I added some strokes with watercolor brush pens on top of the acrylic painting. 

 

Switching from Inktense to Acrylics

Yes, I love to switch between mediums. I enjoyed painting with inktense pencils and markers, but some days ago I decided to switch over to Acrylics - acrylic inks and acrylics out of the tube.

My first step was to empty the drawer in which I am storing my acrylic inks and to put up a list of all my inks. In the end I was really surprised how many inks I have!

Then I fetched a piece of watercolor paper and taped it down to a wooden surface. I took my pencil and let the lines go wild - same as I had done in my inktense painting process. When the lines were on the paper I grabbed three acrylic ink bottles: one containing Siena, the second one containing Carmine red and the third one containing indigo. I color blocked the spaces between the lines. In addition to that I grabbed a tube with yellow ochre, one of my empty yoghurt containers and a pipette. I had always had difficulties with detailed coloring when using paint out of the tube, so I decided to thin the tube paint down with a bit of water and stir it with an old brush. It worked. Adding the black and white lines to the painting was the last step. 

Let the lines go wild!

For this painting I sat down and let my pencil run over the paper, creating a set of round lines crossing each other, drawing some S shapes and avoiding straight lines. Then I filled the spaces between the lines with color, still using my inktense pencils. In the end I used an alcohol marker to fill out the background. 

Using old Dia Slides

The origin of this image is an old color slide that was taken sometime in the 1970s, when slide photography was at the height of its popularity. Over the years, I accumulated a large collection of these slides and eventually selected a number of them to be digitized. Once the scanning was done, I stored the digital files on my hard drive, where they remained untouched for quite some time.This morning, I decided to experiment with them using AI image generators. I first uploaded the digitized slide to ImagePrompt.org, which generated a descriptive prompt based on the original photograph. I then copied that prompt and used it in NightCafe Studio and Deep Dream Generator to create new interpretations of the image.

Naturally, the AI-generated artwork is not an exact copy of the original slide—but that was never my intention. Instead, I wanted to see how AI would reinterpret an old photograph, and I really like the result. It has inspired me to revisit more of my vintage slides and explore how they can be transformed into entirely new works of art.

 

Inktense Pencils revisited

I've got 26 inktense pencils, some of them bought in a bos of 12 pencils, and some of them bought additionally in loose stock. I've bought them a long time ago, and after painting with my waterpencils I decided to use the inktense pencils again. This time I forced myself to sit down and do a color chart first before doing an abstract painting. I was quite glad to have this chart when I began to paint - there is such a big difference between the color you get when you apply the pencil on the paper and the color you get when you use a damp brush to wet the pencil marks!

Watercolor pencils Revisited

It is a long time since I've done anything with watercolor pencils. I've got two cardboard boxes of them, one box for red, yellow and brown pencils, and the other one for blue and green pencils.

Last Sunday I watched a video showing someone playing with pencils, and I felt so inspired that I grabbed thoses two boxes and began to draw / paint. 

It felt good to try something completely different. I used Paint On Paper made by Clairefontaine, and I loved this kind of paper. It is not as textured as "real" watercolor paper, but it still has some kind of texture to it. 

I used a deep blue marker for the background and I love how it makes the painting pop out.

I've got pencils from different brands: some Albrecht Dürer pencils, Faber-Castell, some Mondeluz and Progresso pencils from Koh-I-Noor, and one Supracolor II from Caran d'Ache (the most expensive watercolor pencil of all).

I definitely will continue to play with them!

 

Abstract art done with liquid watercolors

At the end of June we had a brutal heatwave in Germany. The temperatures in my living room went up to over 30° Celsius (about 89° Fahrenheit), and I just went into survival mode. 

Then the heat went dosed wn, and I felt like painting again. This time I used liquid watercolors. When I opened the drawer with my Ecoline bottles I noticed that I must have bought some new ones some time ago and had never used them. Well. Time to try them!